A Look from Researchers – Interview with Silvio De Barros
On this page :
- What drives you every day in your work as a researcher ?
- What are you working on right now ?
- How can your research make a difference in the short or medium term ?
3 questions to Silvio De Barros
Director of Research at CESI
Head of the “Mechanics, Materials and Processes” theme
Silvio De Barros focuses on the behavior and durability of materials, closely linked to industrial, environmental, and educational challenges. From managing nuclear waste to using AI to model aging, his research is firmly oriented toward concrete impact and the transmission of knowledge.
What drives you every day in your work as a researcher ?
Exploring new ideas that can lead to real solutions. Understanding, modeling, and improving materials is both a scientific challenge and a way to address environmental issues.
Another essential motivation is sharing knowledge: guiding engineering students as they discover research, watching their curiosity grow, letting them experiment it’s incredibly rewarding. And of course, there’s the pleasure of teamwork with PhD candidates, engineers, partners, and colleagues. Research is profoundly collective.
What are you working on right now ?
I’m involved in several projects focused on the durability and aging of materials :
- Geopolymers and nuclear waste: studying their ability to immobilize radionuclides over the long term (Discover Applied Sciences, 2025). → see here
- Hydrothermal aging: modeling internal stresses caused by water absorption (The Journal of Adhesion, 2025). → see here
- AI and mechanical behavior: using neural networks to predict how aged materials evolve (Polymer Engineering & Science, 2025) → see here
These projects form a coherent whole: understanding materials better to design them better and to make them last longer.
How can your research make a difference in the short or medium term ?
Our work helps improve the durability and recyclability of materials used in construction and industry. In the short term, it allows us to optimize the performance of bio-sourced materials and predict their lifespan more accurately. In the medium term, it can encourage large-scale adoption of these materials through more easily dismantled, longer-lasting solutions designed with hybrid approaches.
Silvio’s advice to young researchers :
It’s not necessarily my idea that matters, but the best idea.
Silvio De Barros
That’s what I always tell my collaborators. It’s a mindset I recommend to every young researcher: never hesitate to share your ideas, even when working with more experienced scientists. In a meeting or a brainstorming session, what counts is not who speaks the loudest, but what moves the research forward.