Engineering Student Receives PCA Education Foundation 2014 Research Fellowship Award

SKOKIE, Ill.—The Portland Cement Association (PCA) Education Foundation has awarded Jessica Kettelkamp a 2014 PCA Education Foundation Fellowship Award. The fellowships will be presented individually to the student by PCA’s regional executive directors.

John P. Gleason, Jr., served as PCA president from 1986 until his retirement in 2007. He excelled at recognizing long-term opportunities and strove to bring more of a market focus to PCA programs. With the proceeds from a property sale, he created the Education Foundation.

Kettelkamp of Northern Arizona University is studying for her Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering.  She, under the guidance of Professor Robin Tuchscherer, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering at Northern Arizona University, will create a procedure that practicing engineers can use to predict the serviceability behavior of concrete discontinuity regions.                                                                                  

Both the economic and environmental sustainability of concrete infrastructure is coupled to its service-life. In other words, our ability to predict maintenance and replacement costs for infrastructure is connected to our understanding of its durability and remaining service life. The proposed study seeks to improve the sustainability of our constructed environment.

Kettelkamp is one of four graduate students presented with 2014 PCA Fellowship awards.  She was honored at the PCA Fall Meetings in Chicago, August 25 and will be recognized by the Foundation at the Spring 2014 American Concrete Institute Convention in San Antonio.

The PCA Education Foundation Research Fellowship identifies and rewards outstanding masters and doctoral students in the fields of engineering and physical sciences who are studying areas that advance the science and technology of cement and concrete.  PCA’s Education Foundation presents the students with $20,000 each for university and study costs.

PCA established the Foundation in 2001 to help finance education programs in nearly every facet of the cement and concrete industries, from university research fellowships to career recruitment and craft training.

About PCA
Based in Washington, DC, with offices in Skokie, Illinois, the Portland Cement Association represents cement manufacturing companies in the United States. It conducts market development, engineering, research, education, and public affairs programs.