Dr. Epps began his professional career as a professor with Texas A&M University in 1968. His main responsibilities involved teaching and research in the area of transportation materials, pavement rehabilitation, maintenance, and design. He moved to the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Nevada – Reno in 1982, serving as the Dean of the College of Engineering from 1986 to 1993. He currently works as Engineering Services Manager for Granite Construction and is responsible for the company’s quality control, training, and engineering services.
Dr. Epps is known in the asphalt industry for his work as a research engineer during the Strategic Highway Research Program. Together with Dr. Claine Petersen, Dr. Epps served as a consultant to prepare the first technical amplification of the $50 million national research program on asphalt composition and physical properties, a component of the Strategic Transportation Research Study (STRS). This study later became part of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP).
Dr. Epps has authored over two hundred and fifty technical papers and reports in the area of asphalt materials, asphalt mixture properties, maintenance, recycling, and pavement design and economics. He has served as Chairman of the Transportation Research Board’s A2D05 Committee (General Asphalt Problems) and Chairman of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee on Road and Paving Materials. He is a past President of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (of which he has been a member since 1968) and the International Society of Asphalt Pavements.
In 1981, Dr. Epps was awarded the W.J. Emmons award for best paper at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists for work entitled, “Effect of Recycling Agents on the Structural Performance of Recycled Asphalt Concrete Materials.” He also won the Emmons award in 1985 and was the runner-up for the Emmons award in 1969.
Dr. Epps was named an Honorary Member of AAPT in 1996, recognized by the members for having “outstanding eminence and of long experience in the practice of some phase of asphalt paving technology.” At the time, he was one of only 15 members in the 72-year history of AAPT to have received the award — a list including eight Asphalt Institute Roll of Honor recipients. In addition to his awards from AAPT, Dr. Epps has also received the prestigious Prevost Hubbard award from ASTM in 1991 and the Ronald D. Kenyon Education and Research Award from NAPA in 1992.
Elected: 2004
