NCAT Announces Four New Researchers

The National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University welcomes Dr. Adriana Vargas-Nordcbeck, Dr. Fabricio Leiva-Villacorta, Dr. Fan Gu, and Dr. Fan Yin to their research team.

Dr. Adriana Vargas-Nordcbeck, an Auburn alumna, is joining NCAT in August as an assistant research professor. Adriana comes to Auburn from the University of Costa Rica and their national infrastructure lab, Laboratorio Nacional de Materiales y Modelos Estructurales (LANAMME). She will lead all pavement preservation experiments and pursue new projects related to pavement management and pavement preservation in addition to teaching select civil engineering courses.

Dr. Fabricio Leiva-Villacorta will be joining NCAT in August as an assistant research professor. Fabricio is an Auburn University alumnus and was a graduate assistant at NCAT before working at LANAMME with his wife, Dr. Adriana Vargas-Nordcbeck. Fabricio will lead research on using recycled materials in asphalt pavements, multi-scale pavement analysis, teach civil engineering materials courses, and instruct segments of NCAT training courses for the asphalt pavement industry.

Dr. Fan Gu will be joining NCAT in September as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Gu received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southeast University in China. He served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) after receiving his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Texas A&M University. Dr. Gu will lead research regarding rolling resistance, cold central plant recycling (CCPR) and cold in-place recycling (CIR), assist numerous ongoing studies, and instruct segments of NCAT training courses.

Dr. Fan Yin joined the NCAT staff in July as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Yin earned his bachelor’s degree in transportation engineering from Southeast University in China and moved to the United States in 2010. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. at Texas A&M University and worked as a graduate research assistant at TTI. Dr. Yin is working on the cracking group experiments led by NCAT and the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s MnROAD facility. One of his initial assignments is to recommend a long-term aging protocol for lab and plant produced asphalt mixtures prior to cracking tests. He is also working on analysis of cracking tests, cost effectiveness of premium mixtures, and porous asphalt pavements.