Miguel Montoya earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2014 from Catholic University of Honduras, Tegucigalpa. At Purdue, he earned his master’s degree (2016) and his PhD (2021), both in civil engineering. Currently, he is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where he is involved in projects funded by the NSF and the Texas Department of Transportation and is active in student leadership activities through UTEP’s two student-led Transportation Leadership Councils and the ASPIRE Student Association. In his career, he hopes to enhance the adaptability, sustainability, and equitability of asphalt technology for climate change and emerging transportation needs. He will promote the recycling of existing pavement materials to encourage the conservation of raw materials, and he aims to develop scalable asphalt pavement and material solutions that transportation officials can readily implement. He is a co-applicant on the patent, “Quantifying emulsified asphalt-based chip seal curing times using electrical properties.” Montoya is a 2022 Georgia Institute of Technology Focus Fellow and was named an ASTM International Emerging Professional in 2020. As a faculty member, he will harness the power of repetition, believing that students are more likely to recall knowledge, develop skills, and cultivate abilities after performing a series of consistent learning efforts.

Research Interests

Pavement Engineering and Construction Materials