Cassandre was a PhD researcher in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering  at the University of Sheffield, UK. She was co-supervised by Dr Brant Walkley, and was a member of both the Cements@Sheffield (MSE, led by Professor John L. Provis) and Sustainable Materials at Sheffield (CBE) research teams.

Cassandre obtained her Master’s in Materials Engineering from the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT), France in 2019. During her Master’s, she had the opportunity to undertake two six month internships. The first being at the Lafarge Holcim Research Centre, in 2018, developing a new testing method for the evaluation of CO2 binding capacity and the rate of reaction cement paste. Then, in 2019 she created an innovative chalcogenide materials for photonic neuromorphic circuits and phase change memories, at the French alternative energies and atomic energy commission in Grenoble.

In 2019, Cassandre started her PhD at the University of Sheffield. Her PhD research focused on mitigating carbonation and other forms of chemical attack in alkali-activated materials, and was funded by the European project, DuRSAAM. This was part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN), aimed at improving the durability, reliability and sustainability of the built environment through the use of alkali-activated cements and concretes.