Ferdinand Campus worked as a professor of reinforced concrete and steel construction in the entire field of civil engineering at the Technical Faculty of the University of Liège and published around 350 scientific papers. He was Director of the Materials Testing and Research Institute there and held the post of Rector of the University from until 1954.
The problems of reinforced concrete and steel construction and the degree of safety of engineering structures were the subject of his fundamental studies. Campus had a special focus on the welding of steel structures. He was responsible for groundbreaking new findings on shrinkage stresses, which were of great importance for the practice of welding.
Campus also worked on prestressed concrete and problems of shrinkage and creep. Moreover, together with Mirko Ros, he was a founding member of RILEM, which was established in 1947. RILEM’s mission is to promote scientific research in the field of building materials, building material systems and construction technology.