Rob Lewis is a material specialist with broad leadership experience in industry and extensive knowledge of using silica fume in variety of engineering applications.

He started his career as a Senior Field Technician at Tarmac Topmix in 1978 and after contributing eight years to the technical aspects of readymix concrete, he joined Elkem in 1986 as their Technical Marketing Manager. During his illustrious more than 32 years career there, he became known internationally for promoting silica fume in concrete constructions.

In 2018 he joined Ferroglobe PLC as their Technical Marketing Manager, for promoting silica fume to the construction industry. As ICT President 2019-2021, Rob steered the institute through the opening year of the pandemic, presiding over the switch to remote working and the introduction of webinars and the first virtual Convention. He helped secure CSCS recognition of ICT membership for professional Qualified Person cards and concluded agreements with the Society of Operations Engineers for professional registration and CITB-NI for the support of examinations in Northern Ireland. He signed the partnership with RILEM in October 2020.

Perhaps more than anything, as the Chair of Tech & Ed since 2014, he has been the driving force behind instituting the jointly-sponsored ACI-ICT certification scheme for concrete technicians: CFTT to European standards.

Outside the ICT and his regular job, he has written and presented widely on aspects of the concrete technology related to the use of silica fume, not least contributing a chapter on silica fume to the 5th edition of the seminal Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete. He also sits on the related CEN and British Standards committees.

He has lectured on the ACT course and has been an Honorary Lecturer at University of Liverpool. Active internationally, Rob has been a member of the ACI for many years, including membership of 9 of their Committees; he has recently been elected to that Institute’s Board of Direction.