Kenneth A. Snyder (Fed)

Dr. Kenneth A. Snyder is a physical scientist in the Infrastructure Materials Group (IMG) in 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, was the Group Leader from 2009 to 2014, the MSSD Deputy Division Chief from 2014 to 2023.

Dr. Snyder's primary area of research has been the transport and reaction of 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.

Recently, Dr. Snyder became the technical point of contact (TPOC) for three Standard Reference Materials related to the viscosity of cementitious pastes, mortars, and concrete: SRM 2492 (Bingham Paste Mixture), SRM 2493 (Bingham Mortar Mixture), SRM 2497 (Bingham Concrete Mixture). During stability testing for SRM 2492 (Paste) and SRM 2493 (Mortar), measurement improvements were developed for a number of steps involved in the process: estimating the fixture roughness parameter; establishing a zero gap that is repeatable to within a few micrometers; mixing materials with a minimum of incorporated air; and a preshear procedure that makes the estimated viscosity at each shear rate independent of the shear history.

Dr. Snyder is a member of the following professional societies:

• American Physical Society (APS)
• ASTM International

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.