Mladena Luković is currently tenured Assistant Professor in the section of Concrete Structures in the Department of Engineering Structures, at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. She obtained her BSc and MSc degree at Faculty of Civil Engineering in Belgrade, Serbia. Since November 2011 she was a PhD candidate studying concrete repair in the group Microlab, at the Delft University of Technology. She defended her PhD thesis ”Influence of interface and strain hardening cementitious composite (SHCC) properties on the performance of concrete repairs” in January 2016. Since April 1 2016 she is working in the group of Concrete Structures at the Delft University of Technology. Her research topic is application of innovative materials in new and existing structures. She runs a blog in Cement (Dutch Magazine on Concrete Structures).

Work Experience
2011 - 2016             PhD Candidate, Microlab, Delft University of Technology
2016 - 2017             Post-Doctoral researcher, Concrete Structures, Delft University of Technology
2017 - 2020             Assistant professor Tenure Track, Concrete Structures, Delft University of Technology
2020 - Present       Tenured Assistant professor, Concrete Structures, Delft University of Technology

Research
Mladena is leading a research line on “Upscaling New Concrete Types”. Her research focuses on upscaling and enabling safe and reliable structural applications of novel high-performance, sustainable concrete types. The purpose is twofold: firstly, to enable safe structural applications of new concrete types, and secondly, to better tailor materials according to their specific structural opportunities and the structural demands. She mainly focused on three innovative concrete types: Strain Hardening Cementitious Composite, Alkali- Activated Concrete (including Geopolymer Concrete) and Ultra High Performance Concrete, aiming to develop new fundamental understanding on how these concretes behave under short- and long-term mechanical and environmental loadings. In her research, she mostly deal with interfaces, their characterization, modelling and monitoring, as they are critical for structural behaviour of composite and multiphase materials/structures. She combine advanced experimental techniques and (coupled) hygro-thermal-mechanical modelling, supported by her strong background on material and structural fundamentals.

Special awards / prizes

• 2016-2020 International SECO Magnel PhD Prize
• Nominated by TU Delft as one of 5 best scientists for New Scientist Wetenschapstalent 2018.
• DEWIS Award 2017 for the best female PhD at the TU Delft
• JCI (Japan Concrete Institute) Prize 2015 for best paper published in 2014

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