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Kenneth A. Snyder (Fed)
Dr. Kenneth A. Snyder is the Deputy Division Chief of the Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) within the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr. Snyder joined the Inorganic Materials Group in 1990 as a staff scientist and was the Group Leader from 2009 to 2014.
Dr. Snyder's primary area of research has been the diffusive transport of ionic species through cement paste pore solution. His approach was to identify the essential physical and chemical phenomena involved. Because transport is a critical component of virtually all degradation mechanisms, these studies are the basis of reliable predictive models for the performance assessment of concrete structures exposed to the environment.
An unexpected outcome of this fundamental work was the realization, by his colleague Dale Bentz, that one could decrease the rate of diffusive transport by increasing the viscosity experienced by a diffusing ionic species. This insight has led to the identification of potential chemical admixture family that may dramatically increase the service life of most concretes, and the technology has been referred to as Viscosity Enhancers Reducing Diffusion in Concrete Technology (VERDiCT).
Dr. Snyder is a member of the following professional societies:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- ASTM International
Awards
In 2009, Dr. Snyder and Dale Bentz were awarded a U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal award for their research on developing a new class of concrete admixtures to slow diffusion in cement-based materials based on nanoscale viscosity modifiers.