Dr. Makar is a material scientist with over 25 years of experience in working with industrial and construction materials. He holds a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia and a M.Sc. (Eng.) in Engineering Physics and a Ph.D. in Physics from Queen’s University at Kingston. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, he joined the National Research Council Canada (NRC) in 1996, where he currently holds the position of Senior Research Officer.
Dr. Makar’s work at NRC has encompassed a wide variety of construction materials, including cast iron pipes, pre-stressing steels, wood products, bio-materials, polymers, oil well cements and both cast-in place and precast concrete. His areas of expertise include the use of advanced measurement and investigative techniques, cement chemistry, the development of new test and analysis methods and non-destructive testing. He has been working in the area of cementitious materials since 2003, including fundamental cement science, concrete engineering and the application of nanotechnology to cement and concrete. A recent area of interest is magnesium oxychloride hydrate cements, including their long term durability and performance. Dr. Makar is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario and has written over 100 research papers, client reports and other publications during his time at NRC.
