Kurt Smith served as co-host for TRB’s Dialogue with Leaders
Kurt Smith, APTech Vice President and Program Director for the State and National Agencies program area, recently served as a co-host for the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) mid-year event, Dialogue with Transportation Infrastructure Leaders. This engaging, interactive meeting, sponsored by the TRB Infrastructure Group, was held virtually on Thursday, August 31 and featured two distinguished transportation engineers who presented an overview of their career and their vision for the future. The event also included an interactive question-and-answer segment in which the honorees expanded on their career, challenges, and accomplishments.
About the Event
The first portion of the event, titled “The Rubber Meets the Pavement: An Unfinished Story,” featured Dr. Shiraz Tayabji, of Advanced Concrete Pavement Consultancy LLC. Kurt hosted this talk while Dr. Tayabji detailed his more than four decades of experience developing, improving, and implementing technologies for highway and airfield concrete pavements.
Kurt, left, and Dr. Tayabji, center left, posed for a picture at a conference.
Kurt and Dr. Tayabji have known each other for over three decades, and have worked together on a number of research projects, most notably the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Concrete Pavement Technology Program and the FHWA Advanced Concrete Pavement Technology Program. They have served together as members of the TRB Pavement Rehab Committee and the TRB Concrete Pavement Design committee, as well as the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Concrete Pavement Design Committee.
Throughout the talk, they discussed how Dr. Tayabji’s work has led to the emergence of several innovative pavement technologies to improve the long-term performance of concrete pavements, from conceptual beginnings to design approaches to field demonstration projects.
Dr. Gaylon Baumgardner, Vice President of Ergon, Inc. was the second featured speaker at the event. His talk, “Career in Asphalt – Four Decades of Macromolecular Evolution,” detailed his more than 30 years of experience in the petroleum industry—including asphalt and asphalt emulsions—as well as his decades of experience of active participation within the TRB Asphalt Materials Committees.
This portion of the event was hosted by Benjamin Cox, from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.
Check out APTech’s work in pavement research to learn more about innovations in the transportation industry.