Phil leads cross-faculty research to ensure that infrastructure systems can adapt to changes in how we use them and the social and physical environment in which they are financed, created, managed and used. He is PI on the £4.2m EPSRC “Grand Challenge” project investigating the role of robots in city infrastructure maintenance and the £1.4m NERC/ESRC CVORR project, looking at revaluing wastes and the processes that produce them, and is Convener for the £7M NERC Resource Recovery from Waste Programme Coordination Team.
Prof. Purnell's background is in concrete technology but his current publication portfolio also spans composite durability, biomaterials, critical materials, infrastructure transitions, carbon footprints for construction materials, 3D printing and non-destructive testing.
