CEE PhD Student Md Ashikuzzaman Wins Robert L. Snyder Award
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Ph.D. student Md Ashikuzzaman of the UMass Amherst Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department has been awarded the Robert L. Snyder Student Award from the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD). This award provides travel support to help students attend the prestigious Denver X-ray Conference (DXC) and present their work to the international diffraction community. He also won the Snyder Student Award to attend the Denver x-ray Conference 2024 in Colorado, Denver as well.
With the additional travel support provided by WSP USA Inc., (his current employer) along with this award, Ashikuzzaman attended the 74th Annual Denver X-ray Conference, held from August 4–8, 2025, where he delivered an oral presentation titled “Mineralogical and Maturity Analysis of Glauconite Sands from the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain: Implications for Offshore Wind Foundation Design.”
Ashikuzzaman’s research focuses on glauconite sands from the Hornerstown and Navesink Formations in New Jersey, sediments that present unique geotechnical challenges for offshore wind turbine foundations. Through integrated X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, his study quantified mineral composition, identified key accessory minerals, and evaluated glauconite maturity using parameters such as d(001)-spacing, Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), and potassium oxide (K₂O) content.
Results showed glauconite contents ranging from 23.4% to 68.9%, with more mature samples exhibiting higher K₂O percentages, well-ordered crystal structures, and tighter interlayer spacing. These mineralogical and maturity differences, driven by depositional and diagenetic conditions, have direct implications for foundation design in offshore wind projects, where pile drivability and soil-structure interaction depend heavily on sediment composition.
Ashikuzzaman is advised by CEE Professors Guoping Zhang and Zachary Westgate, with the research forming part of the "Piling in Glauconitic Sand: PIGS JIP" project, managed by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute and sponsored by offshore wind developers.
Reflecting on the work, Ashikuzzaman noted, “Understanding the mineralogical variability and maturity of glauconite sands is critical to designing reliable offshore wind foundations along the U.S. Atlantic coast. Our integrated XRD/XRF approach provides the detailed characterization needed for accurate geotechnical assessment.”
Before joining UMass Amherst, Ashikuzzaman earned his M.S. in Offshore Geotechnical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh.