Dr Balendran is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Building and Construction at City University of Hong Kong. Before starting his teaching career, he worked as a civil engineer. He has been a consultant on concrete to the construction industries in Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and was on the Cement and Concrete Standard Specification drafting committees of the Bureau of Sri Lanka Standards and of the Standards and Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM). He is a member of the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS) and is involved in the assessment of a number of Hong Kong testing laboratories in the industry. His main teaching areas include concrete technology, building materials, and structural analysis and design. His main research interests include high performance concrete, durability, composite materials, shrinkage and creep deformation, PFA concrete, lightweight concrete and theoretical modelling.