Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram is the Director of the Centre for Innovative Construction Technology (CICT), a Research Centre under the Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is listed among the top 2% world’s scientists by Stanford University through Elsevier Data Repository, and also the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the Institutions he served. He has been serving as research fund evaluator of different countries that include, South American, Asian, and European countries. He is also recognized external examiner for doctoral theses and evaluator for promotional exercises. His industrial collaboration resulted in bringing research projects from industries to solve some of the imperative issues in material, mechanical, durability and structural properties.  

He is a Chartered Civil Engineer of the world-renowned Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE, UK) and the Engineering Council (UK); he is also a Companion Member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (CIEM), and a member of the American Concrete Society (ACI-Kuala Lumpur Chapter) and a life member of the Concrete Society of Malaysia (CSM).

His current Web of Science (WoS) h-index stands at 49 based on the publication of over 186 journal articles from Web of Science Core Collection. He started University of Malaya's Institution of Civil Engineers Student Chapter (UMICESC) in 2014 and currently, he is the staff Advisor; UMICESC serves as the professional student body for the undergraduate students to enhance their professional attributes, so they can strive towards becoming CEng MICE after gradutation and an appropriate training.

In his Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering, as part of his MEng thesis, he utilized jute as a sustainable replacement material for conventional wood. His MEng research project was acclaimed as one of the best innovative works and the specimens of his research project-Jute Sandwiched Plywood were displayed at the International Exhibition held in Delhi, India. Dr Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of India (then Union Finance Minister) who inaugurated the exhibition had a special word for his work on jute; he continued his research for his doctoral research using sustainable industrial by-products and investigated mechanical and structural behaviour that provided in-sight into vital characteristics on the ductility behaviour of oil palm shells-that he went on to develop as a blast-resistant concrete-using oil palm shell as a whole replacement for normal aggregate.

Professor Ir. Dr. U. Johnson Alengaram has been in academic, consultancy, research, and administration for over twenty-five years and contributed to society in different capacities in India, Bahrain, and Malaysia. His current research involves the utilization of industrial by-products, low-carbon footprint materials, and waste materials in the development of one-part geopolymer, low-carbon cement, limestone calcinated clay cement (LC3) in mortar and concrete; other research aspects include lightweight aggregate, material characteristics, crack-healing mortar using microalgae, lightweight aggregate concrete, foamed concrete, geopolymer concrete and impact & blast-resistant concrete; his experimental works revolve around investigations on the microstructural behaviour, mechanical properties and durability characteristics, structural behaviour, functional behaviour etc. He has supervised many Master of Engineering Science (MEng Sci-Research Mode) and Doctoral candidates to the successful completion of their degrees.

He is the recipient of outstanding achievement awards in most of the Institutions he served. He and his research team won gold and silver medals at international and national exhibitions on concrete engineering & technology. He was the Project Director of two housing projects at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that utilized industrial by-products. His decade long research work on geopolymer concrete enabled him and his team to construct the first cement-free house (superstructure) in Malaysia with the collaboration of Vinci Construction, a French-based construction conglomerate; this house is currently being used by bus drivers and serves as a research hub.

He is the Principal Investigator of many research projects and received numerous research grants from the University of Malaya research fund, the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, national and international grants including the prestigious Newton-Ungku Omar Coordination Fund: UK-Malaysia Research & Innovation Bridges Competition. He has a research collaboration with various universities in Malaysia, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom, India, Japan, Jordan, Oman, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam. He has been invited by various Universities in different countries to give keynote lectures at international conferences, seminars, and research workshops. 

Prof. Ir. Dr U. Johnson Alengaram serves as an Associate Editor in the Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Material, Australian Journal of Civil Engineering, and Editorial Board Member of Jordanian Journal of Civil Engineering (JJCE); he also served as Chairperson of SIRIM Committee for "Eco Labelling of Criteria for Reused By-Products Aggregates", and reviewer of multiple international journals. He has organized workshops, conferences, seminars and trained school students to win local and international awards; further, as the Director of CICT, he has pioneered the activities of the centre to contribute to society and thus many national and international researchers and students are being trained on a regular basis in the centre.  He has been Organizing Secretary, Co-Chair, Chair and Advisor of International Conferences and Workshops.