The Grainger College of Engineering
Illinois Center for Transportation

The 62nd annual Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference was a hit!

1/21/2022 Noelle Arbulu

This year’s Dec. 7-8 conference, held in-person, had more than 280 attendees.

The Awards Committee presented four recipients with the following awards:

  • Zehui Zhu took home the Marshall Thompson Student Research Award.
  • Charles Wienrank was the recipient of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association Bituminous Innovative Research Award.
  • Frank Pearson was awarded the Barry Dempsey Bituminous Technical Contribution of the Year Award.
  • Joe Lamb received the Imad L. Al-Qadi Leadership in Bituminous Engineering Award.

Award recipients were excited to share what this acknowledgment means to them.

“It means a lot to me,” said Zhu, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign doctoral student. “I’m honored that our work here at Illinois Center for Transportation is recognized by others.”

Wienrank, pavement design engineer at Illinois Department of Transportation, felt “honored” to receive this award.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by your peers for all of your hard work over the years,” Wienrank said. “It’s nice to know that your efforts are worthwhile.”

After getting over the initial shock of hearing his name called, Pearson, IDOT District 3’s hot-mix asphalt specialist, found it “slightly difficult to put into words just how much the award means to me.” 

“For a group or an individual to have the opportunity to receive such recognition from their peers speaks volumes about this industry,” Pearson said. “I am incredibly thankful to be able to work alongside so many wonderfully talented and just deserving people.”

Congratulations to the award recipients!

This year’s speakers included the following leaders from IDOT, Federal Highway Administration, industry and academia:

  • Doug House, IDOT
  • Jon-Paul Kohler, FHWA
  • Steven Karamihas, University of Michigan
  • David Lippert, former IDOT/ICT
  • Eric Seibring, Piatt County
  • Matt Mueller, Quigg Engineering
  • Kelly Morse, IDOT
  • James Trepanier, IDOT
  • Imad Al-Qadi, UIUC and ICT
  • Tim Aschenbrener, FHWA
  • Dennis Bachman, FHWA
  • Matt Beeson, Indiana Department of Transportation
  • Gerry Huber, Heritage Research Group
  • Tim Murphy, Murphy Pavement Technology, Inc.

To see the conference presentations, visit the conference’s history page.

We would like to thank attendees, moderators, the conference committee, exhibitors and sponsors for continuing to make this conference a great success!

The 63rd Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference is set for Dec. 6-7, 2022, at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, Illinois.

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