the person behind the advice
Twenty-five years of asphalt judgment, now direct.
Pavel Kriz, PhD, P.Eng. — former ExxonMobil / Imperial Oil Principal Asphalt Engineer, Eurobitume President, and Asphalt Institute Technical Advisory Committee Chair.
Judgment on the answering side of the question.
When a crude slate shifts, a specification is contested, or two labs disagree on the same binder, the question is rarely "what does the standard say" — it's "what do we do about it." Pavel Kriz has spent a career on the answering side: in the refinery, in the lab, on the committees that write the rules, and at the head of the bodies that steward them. Kriz Asphalt Technology puts that judgment to work on your decision — without the wait for a committee or the overhead of a large supplier.
the short version
An unusually broad technical foundation.
Most asphalt careers specialize early — binder chemist, spec person, lab manager, refinery engineer. Pavel's spans all of them, and the range is the point: crude and feedstock effects drive refinery product quality, which drives binder rheology and phase behavior, which drives specifications, which are bounded by what a lab can actually measure and defend. He works across the whole chain because asphalt problems rarely stay in one link of it.
- 01Crude and feedstock effects on asphalt quality; refinery-aware product strategy.
- 02Binder rheology, phase compatibility, physical hardening, and polymer-modified asphalt.
- 03Superpave and MSCR specifications; phase-angle standards development.
- 04RAP and virgin-binder diffusion; low-temperature and glass-transition behavior.
- 05Multi-laboratory asphalt QA and test-variability diagnosis.
- 06Lean Six Sigma process improvement, sustainability review, and technical communication.
career arc
From refinery chemistry to global asphalt leadership.
Pavel trained in chemical engineering and petroleum/refining-related materials science at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, with research experience at DTU, before earning his PhD in Bituminous Materials at the University of Calgary. That doctoral work — glass transition, low-temperature behavior, physical hardening, phase stability, wax crystallization, asphaltene behavior — is the material-science base under everything that followed.
In 2009 he joined Imperial Oil, an ExxonMobil affiliate, in Sarnia, Ontario. The role grew from asphalt research into lab and people leadership, safe lab operations, crude and refining support, product-quality strategy, customer technical service, and global mentorship. He went on to hold the ExxonMobil Principal Asphalt Engineer role — senior technical direction for asphalt strategy, product vision, specifications, quality, and customer support inside one of the world's largest asphalt supply organizations.
- 01University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague — Chemical engineering and petroleum/refining education; research experience at DTU.
- 02University of Calgary — PhD in Bituminous Materials: binder behavior, rheology, low-temperature performance.
- 03Imperial Oil / ExxonMobil, Sarnia — Asphalt research growing into laboratory leadership, refining and customer support, and technical training.
- 04ExxonMobil Principal Asphalt Engineer — Senior technical direction across binder technology, specifications, quality, and global capability.
- 05Eurobitume · Asphalt Institute · ISAP · TRB · CTAA · AAPT · E&E — Industry leadership, technical committees, publications, and standards advocacy.
- 06Founder, Kriz Asphalt Technology — Independent advisory, expert review, training, QA programs, and process optimization.
the phase-angle contribution
From rheological insight to specification practice.
In AASHTO M320 / M332Advanced ideas don't improve pavements until they survive the standards process and land in a document an agency can enforce. One of Pavel's most visible contributions was helping move phase angle from a rheological insight into AASHTO asphalt binder specification practice — the long, evidence-heavy work of getting a better way of reading binder behavior accepted by the people who write the rules.
The payoff is practical: a sharper reading of binder durability, relaxation, and composition — written into a document an agency can actually enforce.
It's representative of how he works: the science has to be right, and it also has to hold up in committee and in the field.
Read the phase angle δ at the fixed point where |G*| = 8967 kPa — 6000 / sin 42° — a stable landmark in Black space.
Named the "Pavel Kriz Phase Angle, δPK" in a 2026 MassDOT webinar, and cited in a peer-reviewed Transportation Research Record paper (2026, with G. Rowe).
industry leadership
Technical credibility built in the open.
Pavel's standing isn't a matter of title; it was earned on the record, across the bodies that govern asphalt technology. He served as Eurobitume President in 2024–2025 and Chair of the Asphalt Institute Technical Advisory Committee from 2019–2022, with active technical contribution across ISAP, TRB, CTAA, AAPT, and the E&E Congresses. That vantage point — seeing which methods hold up across regions and organizations — is part of what a client engages when they engage him.
- 01Eurobitume President, 2024–2025.
- 02Asphalt Institute Technical Advisory Committee Chair, 2019–2022.
- 0330+ authored or co-authored technical papers; 100+ total papers, patents, presentations, and industry outputs.
- 04Inventor or co-inventor on multiple asphalt-related patents.
recognition
Recognized by the institutions he served.
Pavel's technical work and service have been recognized by the Asphalt Institute, the Canadian Technical Asphalt Association, and the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council — the peers best positioned to judge it.
why independent, why now
The same judgment, without the overhead.
Kriz Asphalt Technology makes Pavel's expertise available directly — to refiners, producers, terminals, laboratories, agencies, and contractors deciding what to make, how to control it, how to defend it, and how to build their own technical capability. The value of a senior asphalt engineer was never in the hours; it's in reaching the right decision faster, and being able to stand behind it afterward. Start small, scope it tightly, and see what one clear decision is worth.
“You get the principal, not a pass-through.”
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Bring a real decision. Get senior asphalt judgment you can build on.
Every engagement is confidential.