Mike Beavin

Technical Training Coodinator
Education | Lab Services
Time at Asphalt Institute: 28 years

Mike Beavin joined the Asphalt Institute (AI) in 1998. He has served as Technical Training Coordinator at Asphalt Institute since 2008.

Mike performed his first asphalt-related test (a binder extraction) in the Summer of 1984 as a high school junior. 41 years later, he has visited dozens of domestic and international laboratories; providing public and private training. He has been active in ASTM and AASHTO, is the chief writer for Binder Technician Newsletter, has contributed material for Asphalt Magazine and assisted in the writing of MS-19.

Before his time at Asphalt Institute, Mike served five years as Lab Manager at American Testing and Engineering Company and Linker Engineering, bringing considerable experience of laboratory and field testing to AI.

Mike carries a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. He will admit, he had no idea his career path would lead down an asphalt-paved road, but after 27 years and counting, he still feeds on the energy of everyone he teaches.

My Courses

Mike's Articles

Mike Beavin Archives - Asphalt magazine The Magazine of the Asphalt Institute

  • Fifteen years of our national binder technician program 
    by Mike Beavin on December 7, 2023 at 4:21 pm

    15 things we have learned Fifteen years ago, in early 2008, the Asphalt Institute (AI) hosted the first of many classes as part of its new National Binder Technician Certification, or NBTC, program.  It was a program that was born out of a desire by the Asphalt Institute members to have a “…consistent nationwide means The post Fifteen years of our national binder technician program  appeared first on Asphalt magazine.

  • Laboratory tech tip – Budget bath
    by Mike Beavin on October 29, 2021 at 2:11 pm

    Anything used in an asphalt binder lab costing under $200 might as well be free, or that’s at least the running joke in lab tech circles. Usually ‘laboratory grade’ ensures we get the quality and precision needed to produce quality data. Other times ‘laboratory grade’ just ensures we pay exponentially more for a product we The post Laboratory tech tip – Budget bath appeared first on Asphalt magazine.

  • Talking Asphalt: Rushing it
    by Mike Beavin on October 21, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    What not to do and why not to do it Asphalt binder technicians – you’ve been there. The lab is cranking and you can barely remember what you had for lunch or if you had it at all. You are FED UP with FedEx and UPS. Each delivery brings fresh stress wrapped in a brown The post Talking Asphalt: Rushing it appeared first on Asphalt magazine.

  • Six ways to avoid getting in a bind in the binder lab
    by Mike Beavin on October 11, 2010 at 4:00 am

    Picasso would have been a terrible technician Why is it the exception, rather than the rule, that two asphalt binder test results from a seemingly identical procedure are identical? Same material, same standard, same software, same techniques often produce different results. Results that are different enough sometimes result in disputes, penalties and general frustration. Despite The post Six ways to avoid getting in a bind in the binder lab appeared first on Asphalt magazine.

  • Asphalt binder testing: the ABCs of DSRs
    by Mike Beavin on August 16, 2007 at 4:00 am

    Chocolate pudding, synthetic rubber, toothpaste, and asphalt. At first glance these items appear to have been selected at random. While perhaps not apparent, each of these products shares a common, fundamental characteristic—their rheological, or flow and deformation, properties can be measured by one instrument. A rheometer measures flow and deformation characteristics and can take the The post Asphalt binder testing: the ABCs of DSRs appeared first on Asphalt magazine.

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