Research and education are about discovery. My research group is focused on discovery of new knowledge; such knowledge may be new to the world or new to the individual who is acquiring it through the process of self-discovery. I work very closely with post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students together as a part of my research team.

As to the subject matter, my research is focused on infrastructure materials with emphasis on asphalt materials and pavements. The research on asphalt materials is inherently inter-disciplinary in nature and requires bringing together both theoretical and experimental knowledge from the areas of solid-mechanics and mechanics of time-dependent materials, surface sciences, physics, and (just a little bit of) chemistry. There is lot of experimental work behind fume hoods, loading frames and delicate instruments AND there is a lot of modeling that needs to be done behind a computer screen (or behind envelopes!).

The ultimate goal of my research is to (1) engineer newer and higher performing materials for pavement applications (e.g. self-healing binders and binders with very high durability and cracking resistance), (2) promote sustainable practices (e.g. energy saving construction methods and increased use of recycled materials), and (3) create mechanistic methods to evaluate and predict material performance in lieu of empirical tests.

Please fee free to visit my website for more details or email me if you would like to learn more.

Discover something, it is in the longhorn DNA!

Amit Bhasin, Ph.D.