Benjamin Dillenburger

This PhD project is hosted in the Laloui Group at EPFL in Lausanne and is carried out within the SNSF-funded project DFabuLis: Digital Fabrication Using Living Systems . The research sits at the intersection of geomaterials, material science, and engineering applications, focusing on how biologically driven mineralization can be used to transform demolition and excavation materials into feedstocks for digital fabrication under ambient conditions. The doctoral researcher will investigate the coupled biogeochemical, rheological, and mechanical mechanisms that control particle deposition, mineral precipitation, and hardening in pumpable, extrudable, and sprayable granular materials. The project addresses a largely unexplored challenge: integrating biomineralization into materials suitable for extrusion 3D printing and robotic spraying, with the goal of controlling placement, curing, geometry, and material consumption. Research activities will include experimental study of granular material processability, microbial activity, evolving mineral phases, and the relationship between reactions, rheology, and mechanical behaviour over space and time. The student will connect laboratory findings to digital fabrication workflows in collaboration with the digital fabrication team at ETH Zurich , bringing together geochemical processes, experimental mechanics, and robotic construction technologies. The project is supervised through collaboration between Dr. Dimitrios Terzis at EPFL and Prof. Benjamin Dillenburger at ETH Zurich, combining expertise in geomaterials and digital building technologies. The position is embedded in an international and collaborative research environment spanning EPFL and ETH Zurich.