Close-up of aggregate and asphalt sample texture under raking light — the physical raw material behind every technical decision.

The value proposition

The decision first. Then the science that backed it.

How senior asphalt expertise changes a call that mattered — sanitized to the public-safe shape: the constraint, the approach, and what the organization did next. Plus the one contribution written into the standard by name. No client names, no logos.

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How to read this page

Representative patterns, not a portfolio.

Most of this work is confidential, so read these as representative patterns: the shape of a problem, the reasoning applied to it, and the decision it unlocked. One of them is not sanitized at all — it is a contribution that outlived its project and now sits in the standard by name. If any pattern mirrors a call you are weighing, that is the conversation to have.

Check the record first

Credibility you can verify before we ever speak.

The public record already answers the first question every technical buyer asks: does this person know asphalt at the depth my decision needs? Twenty-five-plus years across research, refining, quality, specifications, and standards — not a claim on this page, a citation trail you can follow.

  • 0125+ years of asphalt and bitumen technology leadership across research, refining, quality, and specifications.
  • 02Former ExxonMobil / Imperial Oil Principal Asphalt Engineer.
  • 03Eurobitume President — industry-body leadership across the European bitumen sector.
  • 04Contributor to the phase-angle 42° safeguard now reflected in AASHTO M320 / M332.
  • 0530+ first-author technical papers across rheology, specifications, recycling, PMA, and performance.
  • 06100+ public technical contributions; patents in asphalt property prediction, crude-source blending, and composition.

The proof that outlived the project

The one we can name — written into the standard, cited by others.

In AASHTO M320 / M332

Phase angle carries a binder’s relaxation signal — how well an aged binder sheds stress instead of storing it toward brittle failure. Read at a fixed, physically meaningful point — δ where |G*| = 8967 kPa, the stiffness at which 8967 = 6000 / sin(42°) lands a binder exactly on the AASHTO |G*|·sinδ line — it becomes a repeatable fingerprint of composition, relaxation, and oxidative durability. Not a fatigue number, not a correlation: a defined reading two binders of the same PG grade will not share.

That reading moved from a rheometer insight into AASHTO M320 / M332 as the 42° phase-angle safeguard — and a peer-reviewed Transportation Research Record paper (2026, with G. Rowe) and a 2026 MassDOT webinar cite the parameter by name. When a project ends the recommendation leaves; a contribution written into the standard stays.

See the papers and the standards trail
Dynamic shear rheometer with black binder held between its parallel plates — instrument and sample together, the measurement behind the phase-angle parameter.
Instrument and material together — where phase angle is read at a fixed binder stiffness, a defined point in the rheology.

Read δ at the fixed point |G*| = 8967 kPa — a defined location in Black space, not a shifting one.

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) — an outside body citing the parameter by name.

Pattern 01 · the crude-slate call

When the feedstock shifts and the product window has to hold.

01Constraint — the crude slate or residue quality changes, and asphalt is the outlet that has to absorb it without breaking grade, tank release, or customer confidence.
02Approach — connect crude and residue reality to blending, tankage, and release logic the way a Principal Asphalt Engineer does — mapping refinery-to-road value, not just a single spec pass.
03Outcome — a clear view of which residues earn their way into the asphalt pool, where the real product window sits, and how to run asphalt as a strategic outlet rather than the last thing off the bottom of the barrel.

More value from assets already in the ground — without a single new tank.

How refinery support works
Refinery process units and piping at mid-distance — the tankage and blending reality behind a crude-slate decision.
Process and tankage inside the fence — where crude reality meets the asphalt product window.

Pattern 02 · the specification you defend

When a claim has to survive an agency, a customer, and a standards committee.

01Constraint — a binder position — a PMA claim, a phase-angle argument, a grade near the edge — has to hold up in front of people who will test it.
02Approach — apply the depth behind public work in rheology, chemistry, aging, and phase stability: separate what the data can carry from what it cannot, and say so plainly.
03Outcome — a defensible position, a cleaner conversation with agencies and customers, and fewer claims that quietly collapse under scrutiny later.

“A specification is only as strong as the question it can answer honestly.”

The phase-angle safeguard above is what that looks like when it works — a reading that survived the room where the standard is decided.

Specifications authority

Pattern 03 · making the data decide

When you have the data and still cannot make the call.

01Constraint — laboratories disagree, samples repeat, results scatter, and the team is stuck between numbers instead of moving on them.
02Approach — turn variation, control samples, and inter-laboratory comparison into a decision model — a structured way to read the evidence rather than argue about it — with custom models where an off-the-shelf answer does not exist.
03Outcome — release decisions the team can stand behind, a learning loop that tightens over time, and lab evidence that finally lines up with business action.

Not a blame system. A precision system.

Inside the Quality Loop
Macro of an asphalt core's fracture face and test specimen — the physical evidence a lab-data decision has to reconcile.
Test evidence — read as a decision model, not argued number by number.

Pattern 04 · the sustainability claim

When recycling and LCA claims have to be greener and true.

01Constraint — higher RAP, a new softener or modifier, a lower-temperature process, an EPD or LCA headline — and pressure to claim more than the boundary supports.
02Approach — balanced judgment on recycled binder contribution, additive behavior, and where the LCA boundary really sits, so the claim is drawn tight enough to defend in public.
03Outcome — growth that holds up where cost, performance, sustainability, and public trust all have to be satisfied at once — and no headline to walk back.

“Honest boundaries age better than optimistic ones.”

Sustainability & LCA review
Reclaimed and recycled asphalt material — the ground-truth an LCA boundary and sustainability claim have to respect.
Material behavior — the ground truth an LCA boundary has to respect.

Pattern 05 · leaving capability behind

When the goal is a team that decides well, not one more report.

01Constraint — the organization does not need a single recommendation; it needs people who can read a specification, question a lab result, and frame a product decision without an outside call every time.
02Approach — through KAT Academy — leadership briefings, workshops, and mentoring that translate senior expertise into shared judgment across technical and commercial teams.
03Outcome — better asphalt decisions made together, from executive alignment down to specification literacy on the bench — capability that stays after the engagement ends.

The recommendation leaves. The judgment stays.

Explore KAT Academy
Gloved hand holding an amber binder flask close in the lab — the hands-on judgment KAT Academy builds into a team.
Shared judgment on the bench — capability that outlasts the engagement.

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Patterns are sanitized and public-safe — no client names, logos, or confidential detail. Credential and public-record claims trace to the About page and the published record.