Ulm grew up in
Fürth/Bavaria and
Erlangen as son of Udo Ulm and Hertha Ulm, both Structural Engineers. Following National Service as a nurse in a surgical hospital in Erlangen, he studied
Civil Engineering at the
Technical University of Munich, where he graduated in 1990 with a "Diplom Ingenieur (Bauingenieur)"(Eq.
MSc) degree. Prior to concluding his studies in Munich, he was sent to the Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussee as an exchange student, and completed his Diplomarbeit (Master's Thesis) at the (LCPC) in
Paris (now
IFSTTAR), the Central French Civil Engineering Laboratory. He continued his studies at Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussees, as a research assistance at LCPC, receiving a Docteur-Ingenieur degree (eq.
Ph.D.) from
ENPC in January 1994, with a specialization in Materials and Structures. During this time, he worked closely with
Olivier Coussy on the English translation of Coussy's book "Mechanics of Porous Continua". The collaboration of Ulm with Coussy led to the development of the Continuum Chemomechanics theory which has been applied by Ulm and co-workers to Early–Age Concrete and risk evalDiuation of concrete cracking relevant for massive concrete structures in innovative bridge and tunneling applications; to prediction of premature deterioration of concrete structures due to the Alkali-Silica Reactions; and the deleterious effects of calcium leaching of concrete relevant for nuclear waste storage applications. In 1996, he became Chargé de Recherche (Research Scientist) of the French Ministry of Public Works. During his tenure at LCPC, he was head of the Research group of concrete and concrete composite behavior and modeling. In 1998, he obtained the
habilitation degree from the
Ecole Normal Superieur de Cachan with a habilitation thesis on chemomechanics of concrete materials and structures. == Academic career ==