Tanya Nash, P.E. is a Pavement Materials Engineer at Asphalt Testing Solutions & Engineering — a valued Blacklidge customer — who was recently featured in Asphalt Pavement magazine. Read on to learn more about her work and her thoughts on being a Women of Asphalt.

What led you to a career in the asphalt industry?

I had just graduated with a Masters in Biomedical Engineering and was still waiting to land a job. During my Masters, my studies were basically on fracture mechanics and human dynamics. Being friends with Dr. Roque outside of the University of Florida, we began to talk about what he teaches and researches with asphalt pavements. After a good conversation about our backgrounds, he had asked if I would be interested in coming to do some work in the asphalt lab in the Civil Engineering Department.  Of course, I said yes, and the rest is history.

What does a typical day look like for you?

One of the things I like the best about my job is that there is no typical day.  Each day presents itself with something different. Some days I am in the lab troubleshooting a project, others I am in the field working with a client trying to figure out what went wrong or what their options are to revive their pavement. There are still times where I am in the office, reviewing articles, preparing presentations for upcoming speaking events, or working on research proposals in relationship to the committees I participate on. The variety involved with having clientele from all over the world is exciting and always keeps me learning.

What does it mean to you to be a Woman of Asphalt?

I am grateful to have been chosen to be part of something that highlights women in the asphalt industry. Being able to highlight the variety of opportunities that this industry holds for women is important. It shows that there are no boundaries to a job; it’s all about doing what you love. Having a young daughter, it was a proud moment for her to be able to see her mom in a magazine.