OTREC Newsletter Interview with Jason Ideker, PhD
Assistant Professor, OSU School of Civil & Construction Engineering
March 2009

Dr. Ideker joined the faculty of OSU in the fall of 2008 to teach and conduct research related to concrete durability. A native of North Carolina, Jason did his undergraduate work at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then earned his masters and PhD from The University of Texas.  In late February, Jason allowed us to get to know him a little better. We learned concrete research involves a lot of international travel, that Jason hates alarm clocks and other things that make ticking noises, that his favorite word is “efficacy,” and that he might give up this career if he could be a commercial airline pilot.

What is your current position and what are some highlights?
I’m an assistant professor and Oregon State was a great fit for me because there is a lot of support for me to be innovative with my research, which focuses on concrete durability. Concrete research may not sound too exciting (my friends say my job is “playing with dirt”) but the current focus on sustainability and green building makes this a vital time for innovation through concrete, especially for transportation infrastructure. For example, you can use recycled/reclaimed materials – fly ash and slag – for a significant replacement of portland cement (e.g. up to 50-80%). And, because those materials can often be found locally, the material itself represents a sustainable choice. Furthermore, there are some opportunities to use pervious concrete in applications such as sidewalks and parking lots. Pervious concrete pavements are not as common in Oregon, although a test section is currently going in right outside of Salem. One of the greatest things about my job is that for all of the theoretical aspects, it’s very applied and has benefits out there in the field, often right away.

How and when did transportation become a focus for you?
Well, you could trace it back to my childhood, really. There’s one story about how I would play in the sandbox, mixing grass and other materials with the wet sand and then throwing handfuls against the sliding glass door to see if it would stick. When concrete became a matter of intellectual curiosity, I was more interested in innovative materials and durability, which led me more towards civil engineering in general and transportation infrastructure, specifically.  There have been remarkable innovations in the last twenty years so it’s great to be doing research at Oregon State leading toward the next wave of innovation.

Dr. Ideker is teaching CE 526, “Advanced Concrete Materials,” this quarter. For more information about Jason, visit http://cce.oregonstate.edu/people/faculty/ideker.html