Dr. Luke Snell’s concrete education and research efforts have not gone unnoticed in the Grand Canyon State. The Arizona Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) has recently bestowed him with an Honorary Lifetime Member Award.
“Thanks for this award,” Snell said in an email statement. “My time in the state and being a part of the Arizona ACI was special. This award will remind me of the great friends and the special bond I had with Arizona’s concrete community.”
Snell reflected on his involvement with Arizona ACI. “Our chapter is one of the best in the U.S.,” he wrote. “When I visited other chapters, I would highlight our certification programs, our excellent chapter meetings, and, of course, our awards program.”
He adds that the Arizona Chapter excelled in its certification programs. “Our example of making certifications available to the students at a greatly reduced cost and offering a wide variety of them is something that makes our chapter unique,” he wrote. “I was pleased that I had a part in making this happen.”
Snell is a concrete consultant, a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and Missouri, and a professor emeritus of engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He’s done extensive consulting work on construction and concrete issues throughout the U.S. and overseas, including Algeria, Mongolia, and Saudi Arabia. His extensive resume includes more than 300 articles. In addition, Snell has been instrumental in starting ACI chapters in Algeria, Ethiopia, and Mongolia and has helped create concrete certification programs in China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.
During Snell’s time in Arizona, he was a board member in the state’s ACI Chapter and was the Arizona State University faculty advisor for the student ACI chapter. The students under his advisement won many national awards at the ACI competitions bringing “concrete” recognition to both ASU and the Chapter.
Snell received the ACI Joe W. Kelly Award in 1995 and the ACI Chapter Activities Award in 1997 and was the ACI Educational Committee Member of the Year in 2002. In addition, he was named one of the “Ten Most Influential People of the Year in the Concrete Industry" by Concrete Construction and Concrete Producer magazines (2007). Other awards include Construction Laureate of Mongolia (2007), the ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award (2008), an honorary doctorate from Aria University of Sciences and Sustainability in Tehran, Iran (2011), and the ACI Certification Award (2015).
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This article originally appeared in the bimonthly Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, Nov/Dec 2021 issue, Vol. 10, No. 6.