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Preface

With the recent quest for developing sustainable infrastructure materials, there is a need for more advanced material characterization techniques at different length scales that can provide insight to the nature and fundamental behavior of the new classes of cementitious materials as they are becoming available. These methods can be used to predict the mechanical properties, microstructural aspects, and long-term performance of different cementitious systems. Examples of these novel techniques that have been recently used for material characterization include nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, nano- and micro-indentation, X-Ray tomography, and atomic force microscopy. Recently, major progress has also been made in the development of novel cement-based systems such as C-S-H/ polymer nanocomposites and self-healing materials. This Special Publication aims at providing a treatise on the current research in the areas related to innovative characterization methods and analytical techniques used in the cement and concrete research, as well as the development of novel basic and composite cementitious materials. This Special Publication is developed to honor the significant contributions made by Dr. James J. Beaudoin over the past four decades to the advancement of cement and concrete science. Dr. Beaudoin, a Researcher Emeritus, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, has authored more than 500 publications, including five books, 20 book chapters, encyclopedia contributions, more than 270 research journal papers, 17 patents, and numerous discussions and book reviews. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Della Roy Lecture Award on applications of nanotechnology in cement science (American Ceramic Society, 2005), the Wason Medal for Materials Research (American Concrete Institute, March 1999) and the Copeland Award (American Ceramic Society, 1998). The papers included in this Special Publication were presented in two sessions in ACI Fall 2014 Convention, Oct 26-30, 2014.