Chaitanya Bhat graduated with a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University in Fall 2020 and is a certified Life Cycle Assessment Practitioner by the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment. Chaitanya is currently working as the Head of Sustainability Engineering and Research at the Asphalt Institute (AI).
As part of his work with the Asphalt Institute, Chaitanya chaired the Product Category Rule (PCR) committee that drafted the first-ever standardized rules to develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for asphalt binder. Chaitanya also leads strategic sustainability efforts under the Asphalt Institute Foundation. A recent example of this work is a collaboration with Wood Mackenzie on an AIF project titled “Analyzing the Petroleum Asphalt Binder Supply-Chain under Energy Transition Scenarios”. Chait intends to further the body of knowledge in the arena of sustainable pavement decision-making by integrating decisions across the life cycle of pavement systems through data-driven mechanisms. Chait is a strong believer that data pertaining to long-term performance, costs and environmental impacts across material procurement, design, and pavement management systems need to be linked for true sustainable pavement decision-making.
Chait is a key contributor to various industries and public agency sustainability committees. Examples of industry and agency involvement include but are not limited to Eurobitume, National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state transportation agencies. In 2023, Chait was also nominated as a subject matter expert to the FHWA’s Accelerated Implementation and Deployment of Pavement Technologies (AIDPT) Program. Chait has also received numerous awards such as the Rising Star Award from the American Centre for Life Cycle Assessment, Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Graduate Research Excellence from Michigan Technological University.
Chait has published 5 peer-reviewed journal publications, 6 peer-reviewed research reports, 3 conference proceedings, and 1 white paper that have been cited over 200 occasions by global researchers. Beyond publications, Chait’s expertise is highly sought out for speaking engagements and to serve on various global panel discussions. Chait has served as a speaker or panelist at over 50 global symposia dealing with topics such as data-driven pavement decision-making, pavement-level infrastructure PCR’s, pavement EPD’s, quality assurance in EPD’s, background data in EPD’s in public procurement, and similar subjects.
In earlier roles at Michigan Technological University and Turner Fairbanks Highway Research Center, Chaitanya played a key role in developing 2022 American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA)’s Product Category Rule (PCR) guidance toolkit that was majorly funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) as well as Pavement Life Cycle Assessment Tool called LCAPave.
