James is a Materials Engineer with substantial pavement engineering, pavement materials, recycled  materials and sustainability experience over more than 20 years.  

James Grenfell is  a Principal Professional Leader at NTRO with more than 20 years’ experience  in the field of transportation engineering. Since 2020 he has worked within  the Sustainability and Materials Performance team, bringing with him his  pavement engineering and materials expertise. Dr Grenfell is currently the  NTRO NACOE Stream Leader for Sustainability. Amongst projects he is currently  undertaking joint NACOE/WARRIP work to investigate the use of recycled and  reclaimed plastic in safe, sustainable future road infrastructure. He has  worked on a variety of projects to advise government on the best practice use  of recycled materials in transport infrastructure. He recently completed work  as project lead on Austroads APT6311 Use of Crushed Glass in Road  Infrastructure, which developed a specification for recycled crushed glass  sand. He has also led work for Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) to develop  a specification for plastic noise walls and been involved in further projects  to develop specifications for plastic pipes and recycled organics.  Previously, he was working within the Pavement Structures Team as part of  Future Transport Infrastructure, having joined ARRB in February 2017. His  work focused on Austroads projects TT2046 Improving the cost effectiveness of  foamed bitumen-stabilised pavements and TT1897 Increasing the use of low-cost  modified granular materials in new and rehabilitated pavements.

Prior to this, Dr  Grenfell spent 13 years as a researcher at NTEC (Nottingham Transportation  Engineering Centre) at the University of Nottingham in the UK. During this  time, he worked on, and managed various projects related to pavement  materials. These projects involved permanent deformation and fatigue  properties of asphaltic materials, moisture damage in asphalt pavements,  adhesion of bitumen to aggregate, warm mix asphalt technologies, the use of  crumb rubber and recycled asphalt and alternative binders. His main research  interests are the fundamentals of adhesion, moisture damage of asphaltic  materials, recycling, and the use of secondary materials.

Dr Grenfell has  published more than 100 journal papers and peer reviewed conference papers.  He is a Director-at-large of the International Society of Asphalt Pavements,  on the Editorial board for the Proceedings of the Association of Asphalt  Paving Technologists and a member of the TRB Asphalt Pavement Design and  Rehabilitation (AKP30) committee. He is involved in several RILEM Technical  Committees looking at bituminous and asphaltic materials. He is member of the  Standards Australia Committee CE-012 Aggregates and Rock for Engineering  Purposes. Most recently he has been appointed Technical Committee Chair of  the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia (REAAA) and as a  committee member of PIARC TC 3.5 Road Infrastructure for Road Transport Decarbonisation.  Dr Grenfell won the Category 2: Industry Excellence in Consulting, Research  or Education award for the National Design Procedures for Lightly Bound  Cemented Materials in Flexible Pavements at the 9th AustStab Awards of  Excellence in 2021.

Prior to working  at NTEC, James undertook a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials. The title of his  PhD was ‘The Effect of Macroalloying on the Microstructure and Mechanical  Properties of γ-based Titanium Aluminides’. This piece of work focused on the  relationships between microstructure and mechanical properties, the  application being the replacement of heavier steel parts in aero-engines.