After a Century, AAPT Reflects and Looks Forward
This content originally published in the Winter 2024 print edition of NAPA Quarterly. Subscribe here.
Founded by 19 charter members in 1924, AAPT membership now exceeds 800.
The Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) celebrated 100 years of asphalt innovations in 2024, hosting a Centennial Celebration that reviewed its century of work in the asphalt paving technology industry.
NAPA President & CEO Audrey Copeland, a past president of AAPT, was interviewed as part of the celebration and shed some light on how the association helped her begin her career and even propelled her toward her current role.
Copeland was an AAPT fellow during her time in a graduate research program at the Federal Highway Administration’s Turner-Fairbanks Highway Research Center while pursuing her PhD and heard from colleagues about the AAPT as a way to further concentrate her studies.
“From the moment I got there, everybody was talking AAPT,” she said. “I just kept hearing ‘If you’re going to be in this area of asphalt technology, whether you’re studying or working, this is where it’s at.’”
Copeland said she was encouraged to apply for scholarship support through AAPT and received the scholarship in 2005. She attended the AAPT Annual Meeting the following March and has been a fixture at the event every year since.
“It’s such a unique scholarship because it’s just for folks in the asphalt industry and it’s a check to the student,” she said, noting that recipients use the funds to do things like attending the annual meeting or even just for living expenses.
Later in her career, Copeland published and presented on topics during workshops and was eventually chosen to be part of the search committee that selected Mike Anderson, AAPT’s current executive director.
She continues to attend AAPT events because it keeps her connected to the discussions on the more technical aspects of the industry, which is where many pavement innovations originate.
“A lot of times this is where stuff has started that truly improves our pavement system,” she said, noting that the storied association has contributed to the creation of the interstate system, the increase of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in the 1970s, and even the development of Superpave. “You could probably trace all of it back to AAPT and the success of those programs and how we ensured the performance of our pavements. It makes you want to be a part of it.”
Besides allowing her to connect with John D’Angelo, who hired her at FHWA once she finished her graduate studies, Copeland also credited AAPT networking with her introduction to Dave Newcomb at NAPA.
“It created opportunities for me to get to know other people well enough to the point where they were willing to hire me and work with me,” she said.
REMEMBERING DAVID E. NEWCOMB
The passing of Dave Newcomb in March 2024 led to an outpouring of support from across the asphalt pavement industry. Newcomb was NAPA’s Vice President for Engineering, Research, and Technology from 1999 until 2011. He served as AAPT president in 2012.
In his honor, the Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) and NAPA created the Dave Newcomb Perpetual Pavement Pioneer Award, which was first presented at the 2024 Perpetual Pavement Conference in Louisville, Ky., in October. The inaugural award went to Marshall Thompson with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Thompson, who first met Newcomb when he was a graduate student, said he was pleasantly surprised and deeply appreciative when he learned he would be the first recipient of an award in Newcomb’s honor.
“He was a consummate professional, and a very close personal friend. He will always be remembered by the hot-mix asphalt community,” Thompson said. “I remember when Dave proposed the term ‘perpetual pavements’ in Cincinnati. At that time, the Illinois DOT was considering the use of what they called ’long-life pavements.’ I concur, perpetual pavements is a much better term.”
AAPT announced the David E. Newcomb Memorial Scholarship Fund, which aims to leverage funds to encourage more students to pursue studies in fields that lead to employment in the asphalt pavement industry. Find more information on the AAPT website: AsphaltTechnology.org.
