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Leslie Struble, Ph.D
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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“Many of our graduate students come from other countries and return to their country of origin after completing their studies, so it helps a great deal that ASTM standards are used internationally.” |
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At what university and in what department do you teach? |
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I teach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. |
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What is the nature of the courses you teach? |
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I teach courses on construction materials, especially portland cement and concrete. My undergraduate courses include Behavior of Materials, Concrete Materials, and Sustainable Housing. My graduate courses include Advanced Cement Chemistry and Construction Materials Characterization. |
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What year did you join ASTM International? In which committees are you active? Are you a committee officer? |
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I joined ASTM in 1979. I am active in Committees C01 on Cement and C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates. When I joined in 1979, I was working for a company that manufactured Portland cement; I was working in a research laboratory, and doing work that eventually led to a new ASTM standard. I later worked for National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has a strong commitment to standards development, so I was encouraged to participate in ASTM more broadly. I have chaired numerous subcommittees in both C01 and C09. I currently chair C01.32 on Alkali. I am also an associate editor of the Journal of ASTM International. |
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What are some advantages of your participation in standards development? |
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I see several advantages of active participation in standards development. ASTM is a place for me to contribute professional service, which is expected of university faculty. It allows me to transfer research results into practice, which is required by many research-funding organizations. It is a good place to network with people in the cement, concrete and related industries, which enables me to help students find employment, sometimes helps me find research funding, and often provides resources to answer technical questions. Finally, ASTM is a rich source of ideas for new research topics. |
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Do you incorporate standards, ASTM or otherwise, into your curriculum? If so, what types? How are they implemented (case studies, research, other)? What is the value of doing so? |
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I incorporate general information about standards and their development into several courses. In our general undergraduate materials course, we use standard tests in the laboratory. That use of standards provides a good opportunity to discuss standards and their development. In more advanced courses, students are instructed to obtain, read and perform standard tests, and the development of standards is discussed throughout the course. In graduate courses that focus on advanced research topics, we often discuss how research methods differ from standard methods and when it is appropriate to standardize particular research methods. |
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Have you been involved in research, either past or presently? If so, in what capacity? What role did standards play in this research? |
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I have been involved in research throughout my career. I worked in industry and in the Federal government as a research scientist. And I continue to be involved in research in the university. Throughout my career, I have often used standard test methods, helped develop new standards and participated actively in ASTM. |
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What advantages do you see for students to have an understanding of standards and their development? |
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I see important advantages for students to understand standards and their development. When they graduate, students will use standards and many will participate in their development. Graduate students are more likely to be involved in research after they graduate, so they may also help develop new standards based on their own research studies. Many of our graduate students come from other countries and return to their country of origin after completing their studies, so it helps a great deal that ASTM standards are used internationally. |
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In your view, should a familiarity with standards be required for graduate-level education, particularly in engineering, law and business disciplines? Would this assist in gaining professional success? |
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In my view, a familiarity with standards should be provided as part of graduate-level education in engineering disciplines such as my own. This can be provided either as coursework focused explicitly on standards, or (as we do here) as an implicit theme discussed in numerous courses. Such familiarity most certainly assists in achieving success in engineering disciplines.
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