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Steven E. Parker
Cemex |
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“ASTM documents are applied every day in the process of meeting our obligations to customers with respect to contract requirements and acceptance criteria.” |
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Who is your current employer and what is your current position? |
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I work for Cemex as vice president of aggregate development. |
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Where did you obtain your undergraduate/ graduate degree(s) and in what fields? |
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I have a B.S. from Montana State University in wildlife biology and an M.S. from the University of Wyoming in geology. |
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When and why did you become involved in ASTM International? |
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In 1988, I became involved to make certain that I had current versions of test methods and specifications that govern the construction and building materials industry. |
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In which committees are you active? Are you a committee officer; if so, what group or groups? |
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I am a member of C09.20 on Normal Weight Aggregates, C09.26 on Chemical Reactions, C09.61 on Testing for Strength, C09.92 on International Activities (a joint C09/C01 on Cement group), the C09.90 executive subcommittee, and the C09.90.01 Strategic Planning, another joint C09/C01 group. I am also chair of C09.40 on Ready-Mixed Concrete and a member of the Committee on Technical Committee Operations. |
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How do you apply ASTM standards in your work? |
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ASTM documents are applied every day in the process of meeting our obligations to customers with respect to contract requirements and acceptance criteria. |
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Apart from using standards, are there advantages to participating in standards development? |
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Yes, participation provides a direct conduit into the process of document maintenance and change management. |
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What are some of your favorite aspects of your job? |
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As a geologist I find great enjoyment in spending my time exploring for sources of aggregate and, once located and determined to be viable, developing a business model and bringing them into production. |
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Are there advantages that you can identify that result from having an understanding of standards? |
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Most definitely, knowledge of standards development results in effective participation with respect to identifying needs and exacting positive change so that industry technology doesn't pace ahead of the development of standards, which can sometimes be slow. |
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Are there any words of wisdom that you can offer to professionals starting out in your field? |
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Your career path is not important; what is important is that you always tell the truth, always do what you say you are going to do, and always do your job better than anyone else.
2005
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