Prof.dr.ir. M.J.G. (Sandra) Erkens

Biography

Professor Sandra Erkens holds the Chair of Pavement Engineering Practice at Delft University of Technology. Besides her position at the university, she is the top specialist in pavement materials and structures at the Dutch Highway Authority (Rijkswaterstaat). She is an internationally acknowledged expert in pavement materials and structures in general and asphalt concrete in particular. She has coordinated the cooperation of research organisations, among others as a member of the FEHRL (Forum for European Highway Research Laboraties) executive committee and as Program Team member for InfraQuest, the cooperation between Rijkswaterstaat, TU Delft and TNO building in the Netherlands.

Prof Erkens is a member of national and international (CEN) groups involved in developing technical requirements for pavement materials and in several (inter)national organisations for the dissemination of research, such as the ISAP technical committee on Constitutive Modelling of Asphalt Concrete, the organization of the two yearly Dutch conference on Infrastructure (CROW-infradagen), the 7^th International Conference on Cracking in Asphalt Concrete (Delft). She has been involved in road engineering research since 1997 and has published nearly a hundred papers on her work and is a regular reviewer for conferences and journals on the topic.

Academic Background

Jan. 1997 - Feb. 2001: PhD from the Delft University of Technology on determining, modelling en predicting asphalt concrete response. The project was carried out in cooperation between the groups of Road Engineering and Structural Mechanics, first promotor was prof.dr.ir. André Molenaar, second promotor was prof.dr.ir. Johan Blaauwendraad.

Sept. 1989 - Jun. 1994: MSc Civil Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, graduated with the structural mechanics group of prof.dr.ir. Blaauwendraad, with an additional exam in road engineering.

Nov. 2014 - Nov. 2015: part-time (0,6 fte) specialist/coordinating advisor Pavement Materials and Structures at Rijkswaterstaat, the division for Large Projects (Dienst Grote Projecten en Onderhoud) and part-time professor of Road Engineering Practice at the Delft University of Technology, dept. Civil Engineering and Geosciences.

Mar. 2013 - Nov. 2014: part-time (0,6 fte) senior advisor Pavement Materials and Structures at Rijkswaterstaat, the division for Large Projects (Dienst Grote Projecten en Onderhoud) and part-time (0,4 fte) hoogleraar toegepast wegbouwkunde, faculteit der Civiele Techniek en Technische Geowetenschappen, TU Delft.

Mar. 2008 - Mar. 2013: senior advisor/specialist pavement network design, Centre for Transport and Navigation, Rijkswaterstaat.

Apr. 2005 - Feb. 2008: advisor/specialist on road engineering materials at the Road and Hydraulic Engineering Institute (DWW) of Rijkswaterstaat.

Jan. 2001 - Mar. 2005: combined part-time positions at the Delft University of Technology (Assistant Professor, 40%) and the Road and Hydraulic Engineering Institute (project manager, 60%).

Jan. 1997 - Feb. 2001: as PhD student at the Delft University of Technology I researched the topic of determining, modelling and predicting pavement response.

Jul. 1994 - Dec. 1996: researcher at the Road & Railway Research Laboratory of the Delft University of Technology.

Sept. 1993 - Jun. 1994: MSc-thesis student, I did a project at TNO Building and Construction Research on the topic of the numerical simulation of shrinkage cracking in masonry walls.

Research Interests

• Testing & modelling of pavement materials, particularly Asphalt Concrete