TTI’s Amy Epps Martin Earns Prestigious Honor as ASCE Fellow

Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Engineer Amy Epps Martin has been elected an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Fellow, an honor awarded to ASCE members who are mentors and leaders in the civil engineering profession.

Founded in 1852, ASCE is the oldest engineering society in the United States and includes over 150,000 members in 177 countries. The society’s vision is for civil engineers to become global leaders who help build a better quality of life.

Epps Martin first joined ASCE as an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. She participated in the ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition (NCCC) in Orlando, Florida, and Fort Collins, Colorado. “We won the national championship both years (1991 and 1992),” says Epps Martin. Through the ASCE NCCC, ASCE students gain practical experience and leadership and project management skills by designing, building and racing a concrete canoe.

Now, she’s focused on giving back to the next generation. “I serve as a mentor to my graduate students (over 40 so far) and post-doctoral researchers (three so far) as well as researchers younger than me,” notes Epps Martin.

Through her research at TTI, Epps Martin has developed sustainable practices for asphalt materials, performance-based specifications for asphalt pavement materials, and design and construction guidelines for specialty asphalt mixtures. In April 2019, she was elected as director-at-large on the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists board of directors.

Epps Martin also teaches civil engineering materials courses as a professor in the Texas A&M University Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “My TTI research in safe, sustainable asphalt technologies is directly discussed in my stacked CVEN 417/653 Bituminous Materials course,” she says.

With over 22 years at TTI and Texas A&M, Epps Martin continues to make an impact on civil engineering students and researchers, mentoring them in class while conducting research.

“We would like to congratulate Amy Epps Martin on being elected ASCE Fellow, a distinction awarded to fewer than three percent of ASCE members,” says ASCE Executive Director Tom Smith. “Dr. Epps Martin achieved this distinction through a unanimous vote of the membership applications review committee.”