Congratulations to four winners of AMAP's 2018 Dr. David R. Jones IV Scholarships

February 7, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phoenix, Arizona

The Association of Modified Asphalt Producers (AMAP) has selected four students from a pool of extremely qualified applicants as recipients of AMAP's Dr. David R. Jones IV scholarships for 2018.

Two undergraduates and two graduate students will each receive a stipend of $2,000. Winners were announced today at the awards luncheon of AMAP's 2018 Conference and Workshop.
  • Katie Haslett
    University of New Ha    mpshire
    (undergraduate)
     
  • Gabrielle Wickizer
    Rowan University
    (undergraduate)
     
  • Akshay Gundla
    Arizona State University
    (graduate)
     
  • Mostafa Nakhaei
    Auburn University
    (graduate)
AMAP thanks its members who have endowed this scholarship and continue to support students with education and career goals of improving asphalt through modification.

About the 2018 Winners

Katie Haslett is currently a senior undergraduate student at the University of New Hampshire studying civil engineering. She is also pursuing her master's in civil engineering at UNH through the accelerated master's program under the supervision of Dr. Jo Sias Daniel and Dr. Eshan V. Dave.

Katie is actively involved in all areas of campus life. She is a member of the Asphalt Materials Research Group, American Society of Civil Engineering, Vice President of the NH chapter of Tau Beta Pi, UNH Honors Program, member and 2-time captain of the Women's D1 Ice Hockey team, Student-Athlete Advising Committee (SAAC), and student leader with Athletes Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. She had the opportunity to gain some asphalt production and construction field experience at Pike Industries Inc. through a summer internship.

Katie's ongoing asphalt research is focused on the cracking performance of mixtures at low and intermediate temperatures with varying loading rates and recycled asphalt pavement amounts.

Gabrielle "Gaby" Wickizer is currently a Junior Civil and Environmental Engineering student with a concentration in Honors Studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

She is the treasurer of Rowan University's American Society of Highway Engineers Chapter and an active member in the university's American Society of Civil Engineers Chapter, Tau Beta Pi Honors Society, and the Bantivoglio Honors Program.  Gaby is an undergraduate research fellow at The Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATEs) of the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering. Her research at CREATEs focuses on evaluating incinerated municipal waste for use in hot mix asphalt. She also does research in the use of recycled concrete aggregate in ternary blended concrete for Rowan University and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Gaby looks forward to interning for Tilcon NY Inc. this upcoming summer and finishing her degree in the Spring of 2019. After she graduating, Gaby plans to pursue a position in quality control and operations in the asphalt industry and obtain her professional engineer's license.  

Akshay Gundla is a PhD candidate in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University. He received his M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from ASU in 2014.

His primary research interests are in the area of testing and evaluation of asphalt binders, with a special focus on non-linear viscoelasticity. He is currently working on a project sponsored by Arizona DOT which seeks to evaluate the MSCR test for adoption into its binder specifications.

His previous works include the sensitivity study for the NCHRP 09-54 project, RAP blending studies, evaluating additives like hydrated lime and portland cement for aging mitigation. His work has been published in leading civil engineering journals including ASCE-JMCE, Construction and Building Materials, and IJPE.

Akshay loves to travel, explore and capture nature through his lens. He takes great interest in macro photography. He is also an avid runner and has participated in 10K runs across Phoenix. He keeps his weekends occupied by watching and playing sports. Soccer, and American football are among his favorite sports and he plays amateur league cricket in the Phoenix valley.

Mostafa Nakhaei, a graduate research assistant at National Center for Asphalt Technologies (NCAT) at Auburn University, started his PhD career in August 2017. He received his M.Sc. degree in 2015 from University of Tehran in road and transportation engineering.

Following his M.Sc., Mostafa went to work in R&D at Technical and Soils Mechanic Laboratory, a large company with 2500 employees and 30 branches across Iran. He worked on variety of subjects in pavement industry and became an expert in Hot-In-Place (HIR) recycling and microsurfacing projects, which included consulting with contracting companies on these topics for two years.

Mostafa's research in modified asphalt binder for in-place technology led to the first implementation of modified Hot-In-Place recycling. He has 20 publication credits since 2015 (seven journal articles, two TRB papers, nine conference papers, one book, and one report) on different topics in pavement engineering. 

Contact:

Jim Sattler
330-714-4117

Better Roads from Better Technology