As of October 1, 2016, the SWUTC concluded its 28 years of operation and is no longer an active center of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The archived SWUTC website remains available here.

Carol A. Lewis Receives 2016 Sharon D. Banks Award

Carol_Lewis_webCarol A. Lewis, Professor in the Department of Transportation Studies, and Director of the Center for Transportation Training and Research at Texas Southern University, and longtime SWUTC Executive Committee member and key researcher, has been selected as the recipient of the Transportation Research Board’s 2016 Sharon D. Banks Award for Humanitarian Leadership in Transportation. She is recognized for her unique blend of transportation accomplishments, successes in the mentoring and nurturing of young people, and tireless promotion of responsible growth and protection of neighborhoods. Lewis’ people-oriented approach to planning is credited with the difference in lives of countless students, fellow researchers and professors, younger professionals, community groups, and transit riders throughout the Houston, Texas area.

The Banks Award, presented on January 13, 2016, during the Chairman’s Luncheon at the TRB 95th Annual Meeting, honors the memory of Sharon D. Banks, who was General Manager of AC Transit, Oakland, California, from 1991 to 1999 and who chaired the TRB Executive Committee in 1998. She died in 1999. The award recognizes individuals whose accomplishments exemplify her ideals of humanity and service by making a significant difference in the lives of those who use, deliver, or support transportation services.

Mike Walton Appointed to Future Interstate Study Committee

Walton_webThe Transportation Research Board—one of seven program units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—has initiated the Future Interstate Study and asked Dr. Mike Walton to serve on the study’s committee. Required by the federal FAST Act of 2015, this study will determine the actions needed to upgrade and restore the nation’s Interstate Highway System. This crucial highway network was completed in 1956. While the system is less than 10% longer than it was 60 years ago, the number of drivers using it has tripled and the vehicle miles traveled has quintupled. To guide this 30-month study and author its report, the National Academies appointed a committee of 14 experts with balanced backgrounds and perspectives in transportation policy and planning in both urban and rural contexts, travel demand, highway construction and operations, traffic safety, modeling, environmental and community impact mitigation, economic development, supply chains and goods movement, funding, equity and access to economic opportunity, multimodal transportation, and advanced vehicle technologies. To this mix of public and private sector experts, Dr. Walton brings the expertise in transportation system engineering and intelligent transportation systems for which he is renowned.

Walton Named to the ARTBA Transportation Development Hall of Fame

Walton_ARTBA_Hall_of_FameCongratulations to SWUTC Executive Committee member, Mike Walton, who was named to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Foundation’s “Transportation Development Hall of Fame.” This Hall was established in 2010, and “recognizes individuals or families who have made extraordinary contributions to US transportation development and demonstrated exceptional leadership over their lifetime.” The official induction ceremony was held at the ARTBA Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Luncheon on October 1, during the association’s national convention in Philadelphia. Dr. Walton is the first academic to be inducted into the ARTBA Hall of Fame.

Dr. Walton has been a transformative figure in bridging the gap between research and practice, through his service as a member of several Boards of Directorships of publicly and privately held companies, his research and consulting relationships with more than half of the state departments of transportation in the country, and his professional leadership activities to the Transportation Research Board (TRB), ARTBA, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the National Academies. His reputation as a leader and a “mover and shaker” in the transportation field has been built upon more than 40 years of service to the profession as a teacher, a researcher, a mentor, and a passionate contributor to his community.

Spiegelman Elected 2014 AAAS Fellow

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Dr. Cliff Spiegelman, 2014 AAAS Fellow

Dr. Clifford H. Spiegelman, distinguished professor of statistics at Texas A&M University, and key SWUTC researcher has been recognized as a 2014 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Spiegelman is one of two Texas A&M professors who are among the 401 AAAS members honored by their peers with the prestigious distinction this year for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the “AAAS News & Notes” section of the Nov. 28 edition of the journal Science. In addition, each will be presented with an official certificate and gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pins in a Saturday, February 14 ceremony at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Jose, Calif.

Spiegelman is an expert in statistical and environmental forensics as well as a founder within statistics of the field of chemometrics, the science of using data to extract information from chemical systems. He also is a senior research scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the state’s transportation research agency. He joined the Texas A&M Department of Statistics in 1987 as an associate professor, earning promotion to full professor in 1990 and to distinguished professor in 2009.

Specifically, Spiegelman is cited by AAAS “for leadership in addressing complex, real-world problems, especially in chemometrics, transportation, forensics and social program evaluation through the development, application and communication of innovative statistical methodology.”

“Cliff Spiegelman has been an outstanding statistician at Texas A&M for 27 years, and during that time he has devoted much of his time to real-world problems ranging from transportation to forensics, with many other stops along the way,” said Dr. H. Joseph Newton, Dean of the College of Science. “He is known as one of the founders of chemometrics; the application of statistics to chemistry. We are indeed fortunate to have on our faculty a researcher and teacher like Cliff who has made such a broad impact in several important areas.”

Spiegelman is a fellow of both the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) as well as an elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). He is a two-time recipient of the ASA Statistics in Chemistry Award for best paper and also has received the 2007 Jerome Sacks Award for Outstanding Cross-Disciplinary Research.

Spiegelman was instrumental in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decision to stop using compositional bullet lead analysis after he demonstrated it to be flawed. Related research prompted revisiting the possibility of a second shooter in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The subsequent article on that topic that appeared in the Annals of Applied Statistics led to his second career ASA Statistics in Chemistry Award. He routinely co-authors forensic columns for the Austin American-Statesman and also testifies in criminal matters on other aspects of statistics, flawed forensic science, probability and the law — often in association with the Innocence Project, the national nonprofit legal clinic dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and other post-verdict methods.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association’s 24 sections, or by any three fellows who are current AAAS members — so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee’s institution — or by the AAAS chief executive officer.

To learn more about the American Association for the Advancement of Science, visit www.aaas.org.

Chandra Bhat Receives 2015 Hind Rattan Award

Dr. Chandra Bhat speaking.

Dr. Chandra Bhat speaking.

CTR Director, and SWUTC Executive Committee Member and researcher, Chandra Bhat from the University of Texas was selected to receive the prestigious 2015 Hind Rattan, an award given by Government of India in conjunction with a non-profit welfare society for PIOs (People of Indian Origin) residing outside India. The Hind Rattan (a Hindi phrase, which translates to English as “Jewel of India”) is one of the highest Indian diasporic awards granted annually to individuals of Indian origin. About 25–30 recipients worldwide are selected for the honor each year from the over 25 million individuals of Indian descent residing outside India. Bhat received the award in New Delhi on the eve of the 66th Republic Day of India on January 26, 2015, amidst high-level members of the Indian government and the Indian Supreme Court, international ambassadors, and scientists and scholars from India. The award recognizes Bhat’s “outstanding services and scholarly achievements in the transportation and econometrics fields.”

 

Steve Boyles Receives CUTC New Faculty Award

Dr. Boyles accepting his award

Dr. Boyles accepting his award.

Assistant Professor and SWUTC Researcher Stephen Boyles from the University of Texas was selected for the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC-ARTBA) New Faculty Award.  This award honors tenure-track educators who have made outstanding teaching and research contributions in the transportation field.  Dr. Boyles formally received the award at the CUTC Annual Awards Banquet on January 10, 2015, in Washington, D.C.

 

Mike Walton Inducted into Texas Transportation Hall of Honor

On December 1, 2014, CTR was honored as Dr. C. Michael Walton was inducted into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor. The ceremony took place at the AT&T Conference Center with many key figures in the Texas transportation field in attendance.

The Hall of Honor, established in January 2000, provides the opportunity for transportation professionals to recognize the state’s pioneering transportation leaders. Dr. Walton joins as the 40th member of this Hall of Honor.

The induction ceremony followed the 2014 CTR Texas Distinguished Lecture Series in Transportation. After a welcome from CTR Director Chandra Bhat, the Hall of Honor Board Chair Dennis Christiansen provided an overview of the Hall of Honor’s history and role in Texas transportation. Then some of Dr. Walton’s colleagues and collaborators remarked on his distinguished career. These speakers included Bob Skinner (Executive Director, Transportation Research Board), John Barton (Deputy Executive Director, Texas Department of Transportation), Linda Watson (President & CEO, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority), Nicholas Rubio (US President, Cintra), Sharon Wood (Dean, Cockrell School of Engineering), and Valerie Briggs (Director, National Highway Institute).

walton-hall-of-honor-feat

Dr. Walton’s plaque will be permanently displayed at the Hall of Honor, located in College Station. Presenters pictured (left to right): Rubio, Bhat, Watson, Walton, Barton, Christiansen, Skinner.

Kockelman Honored by Google Research

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Kara Kockelman

University of Texas at Austin Professor, and SWUTC key researcher, Kara Kockelman is the recipient of a Google Research Award in the category of Robotics for her work on Anticipating & Mitigating the Latent Demand Effects of Self-Driving Vehicles: A Role for Data-Driven Modeling & Credit-Based Congestion Pricing.  This work built on her previous SWUTC project Anticipating Long-Term Energy and GHG Emissions Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles.   Google Research Awards are one-year awards structured as unrestricted gifts to universities to support the work of world-class full-time faculty members at top universities around the world. Several teams of Google engineers and researchers were involved in selecting Dr. Kockelman’s proposal.  Civil, Architecture and Environmental Engineering Department Chair Rich Corsi noted that “It’s great to see members of our CAEE community receiving recognition from major corporations like Google.”

Zhanmin Zhang Selected to Serve as Council Chair

Zhanmin Zhang

Zhanmin Zhang

University of Texas at Austin Associate Professor, and SWUTC Executive Committee member, Zhanmin Zhang has recently been selected to serve as Council Chair of the Mode Spanning Council by the Transportation and Development Institute’s (T&DI) Board of Governors.  T&DI is one of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) eight specialty institutes.  His term begins immediately.

Zhang has worked extensively with T&DI. He was elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Infrastructure Systems Committee from March 2009 to October 2012. Then he was appointed to serve as Chair of the Infrastructure Systems Committee in October 2012.

As Council Chair of the Mode Spanning Council, Zhang will be overseeing four T&DI technical committees for ASCE: Advanced Technologies Committee; Infrastructure Systems Committee; Intermodal & Logistics Committee; and Transportation Safety Committee.

 

John Renne to Chair Transportation Committee of National Board

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Dr. John Renne

University of New Orleans faculty member and SWUTC Executive Committee member and key researcher, John Renne has been named a committee chair of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. Renne, associate professor of planning and urban studies and director of the Merritt C. Becker UNO Transportation Institute, will chair the Transportation and Land Development Committee for a 3-year term.

“This committee is a leading forum of experts that sets a national agenda on the topic of transportation and land use planning,” Renne said. “Given the economic recovery and a renewed interest in cities, transit and sustainable development, I am very excited to be taking over this committee at such a critical time in our nation’s history.”

Renne’s research focuses on sustainable transport, real estate, land use and transportation planning with a focus on transit-oriented development, travel behavior and emergency transportation planning for vulnerable populations. He has co-edited two books, “Transport Beyond Oil: Policy Choices for a Multimodal Future” and “Transit Oriented Development: Making It Happen.”

Renne also serves as the chair of the New Orleans Sustainable Transportation Advisory Committee to the City Council and he served on the founding board of Bike Easy, New Orleans’ nonprofit bicycle advocacy organization.

The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through research. It is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council, a private nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities.

Li Accepts Leadership Role in Landscape Architecture Association

Ming-Han Li

Dr. Ming-Han Li

Ming-Han Li, SWUTC researcher and associate professor in Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, has been elected vice president of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), an international association which advances education, research and outreach.

Li was named first vice president/president-elect at CELA’s national conference in Baltimore, Md., March 26-29. He will serve one-year terms as first vice president, president and past president over the next three years. Li has served in leadership positions for the council since 2007.  He also received CELA’s Outstanding Communications Award, which recognizes landscape architecture educators who have coordinated abstract and paper reviews for CELA’s annual conferences since 2008.

Li, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2003, is interested in stormwater management, bioretention, soil erosion control, streambank bioengineering and sustainable landscape technology.

Kara Kockelman Receives ASCE James Laurie Prize

Dr. Kara Kockelman

Dr. Kara Kockelman

SWUTC researcher and transportation engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Kara Kockelman was selected as the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) James Laurie Prize in Transportation Engineering.

She is recognized for “innovative data acquisition and analysis efforts, outstanding contributions to the study of highway safety and crash occurrence, travel behavior, vehicle and driver characteristics, road pricing, spatial statistics, and energy and climate issues, providing guidance for transportation planners and policymakers.”

Kockelman will receive the award during the 2nd T&DI Congress in Orlando, Florida in June 2014.

SWUTC Researcher Wins CUTC New Faculty Award

Dr. Amit Bhasin

Dr. Amit Bhasin

Dr. Amit Bhasin, SWUTC researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the New Faculty Award from CUTC during their January 2014 meeting in Washington D.C. This award recognizes significant achievements of young faculty members.

“We are so fortunate to have Amit. He’s a research leader in his field, and an incredible mentor for our students. His research is absolutely cutting-edge, and he truly deserves this credit. It’s another great example of our faculty and researchers being at the forefront of intellectual innovation” stated fellow faculty member, Dr. Chandra Bhat.

SWUTC Researchers Win TRB Award

Chandra Bhat

Dr. Chandra Bhat

SWUTC researchers part of team to be awarded the 2013 TRB Pike Johnson Award.  This award, given annually, is for an outstanding paper published in the field of transportation systems planning and administration. The winning paper, “Modeling of Household Vehicle Type Choice Accommodating Spatial Dependence Effects” was co-authored by Rajesh Paleti (SWUTC doctoral student researcher), Chandra R. Bhat (SWUTC key senior researcher), Ram Pendyala and Konstadinos Goulias from the University of Texas at Austin.

 

 

Godazi Elected as National Technical Association Officer

khosr 2013 reduced

Mr. Khosro Godazi

Khosro Godazi, SWUTC Associate Director for Transportation Research at Texas Southern University was elected as Southwest Region Director for the National Technical Association (NTA) on September 20, 2013.

As the nation’s oldest (since 1925) technical association of minority scientists and engineers, NTA remains pledged to insure that science and technology serve the needs of the minority community.  Through this appointment, Mr. Godazi will coordinate NTA activities in the southwest region.  Including, supporting the annually hosted Technical Symposium which allows minorities who are our future scientists, engineers, doctors, technicians, machinists, information systems and programmers the opportunity to enrich their science awareness.

Tooley Named ARTBA Vice Chairman at Large

Melissa Tooley

Dr. Melissa Tooley

Melissa Tooley, SWUTC Director at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), has been elected vice chairman at large for the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). Results of the nominating process were announced during ARTBA’s National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 8-12. Tooley’s election represents the first time a TTI employee has been elected to ARTBA’s executive committee.

“This is a significant position in a very powerful national organization,” says TTI Agency Director Dennis Christiansen of Tooley’s election.

Established in 1902, ARTBA is the nation’s oldest and largest transportation association “whose primary goal is to aggressively grow and protect transportation infrastructure investment to meet the public and business demand for safe and efficient travel.”

Based in Washington, D.C., ARTBA consists of 5,000 public- and private-sector members and is actively involved in all transportation-related issues. The executive committee consists of 15 transportation professionals from around the country, each of whom serves a one-year term. Six of the individuals, including Tooley, were elected to at-large positions and will help determine ARTBA’s stance on issues impacting the association.

“This is a huge honor and responsibility,” Tooley notes. “ARTBA is known worldwide for its visionary leadership and I look forward to the coming year.”

Chandra Bhat Receives Humboldt Research Award

Dr. Chandra Bhat

Dr. Chandra Bhat

Chandra Bhat, SWUTC Executive Committee Member and key researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, is the recipient of the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany.  The award recognizes “academics whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future.”

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, based in Bonn, Germany, grants up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards annually to scientists and scholars from abroad with internationally recognized academic qualifications.  Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany in cooperation with colleagues.  Among past winners of this prestigious prize are nearly 40 Nobel Laureates.  The Humboldt network is a nonprofit foundation established by Germany for the promotion of international research cooperation.

As part of the Humboldt Award, Bhat plans to collaborate with Prof. Kai Nagel at Technische Universitat (TU) Berlin on research issues at the interface of transportation demand modeling and transportation supply modeling.  He will also collaborate with Prof. Claudia Czado in the mathematical statistics field at TU München. Prof. Czado and Chandra share interests in the area of complex multi-dimensional dependency modeling, an important methodological issue in accommodating interactions between decision making agents in complex systems such as transport systems.

Walton Receives 2013 ASCE Presidents’ Award

Walton_web

Dr. C. Michael Walton

Dr. C. Michael Walton, SWUTC Executive Committee member and Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, was selected to receive the 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Presidents’ Award.  With this award, Dr. Walton is recognized for his exemplary career and contributions to civil engineering education and research and for his extraordinary professional and technical leadership in the fields of intelligent transportation systems, freight transport, transportation planning, economics and policy analysis.

The ASCE Presidents’ Award was established in America’s Bicentennial year in commemoration of the nation’s first President, who was a civil engineer and land surveyor.

Machemehl Receives CUTC Award

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Dr. Randy Machemehl

Dr. Randy Machemehl, SWUTC Associate Director and Nasser I. Al-Rashid Centennial Professor in Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, was selected to receive the Distinguished Contribution to University Transportation Education and Research Award from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) during their annual banquet in Washington D.C. in January, 2013.

The award has been given annually since 988 to honor individuals who have a long history of outstanding contributions to university transportation education and research.  Winners are chosen by vote of the CUTC Executive Committee from nominations submitted by CUTC members.

Walton Receives 2013 Frank Turner Medal

Prof. Mike Walton

C. Michael Walton

C. Michael Walton, SWUTC Executive Committee member, professor of civil engineering and the Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, received the 2013 Frank Turner Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Transportation.

The award recognizes lifetime achievement in transportation, as demonstrated by a distinguished career in the field, professional prominence and a distinctive, widely recognized contribution to transportation policy, administration or research.

Walton was honored for his influential 40-year career in transportation, in which he has combined distinguished university teaching and research, exceptional service to government at the state and federal levels, active engagement with the private sector and extraordinary service to professional organizations.

Walton received the award during a luncheon on Jan.16 at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 92nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. A committee composed of top staffers from the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, American Public Transit Association, the Texas Transportation Institute and TRB selects the award recipient. TRB, which is also the secretariat for the award, is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council, which is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

As a researcher on transport systems engineering and policy analysis, Walton has contributed to more than 500 publications in the areas of intelligent transportation systems, freight transport, and transportation engineering, planning, policy, and economics. He is internationally respected by his colleagues and peers and has received numerous awards and honors. His election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 gave formal recognition to the high esteem in which he is held in the professional engineering community. As an educator, Walton has influenced the lives of several generations of transportation engineering students and has been a strong mentor to many who have worked closely with him.

 

Steve Boyles Receives NSF CAREER Award

steve-boyles

Steve Boyles

Steve Boyles, SWUTC Researcher and Assistant Professor in Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, was a recent recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation recognize promising young faculty and supports their research with five years of funding.

Boyles’ proposal is entitled “Integrated Multiresolution Transportation Network Modeling” and the objectives of the work are to the investigate the relationships between transportation networks of different scales/sizes, learn how to quantify these relationships, and discover the implications for transportation planning.

Hawkins Honored with Educator Award

portrait of Dr. Hawkins

Dr. Gene Hawkins

Dr. Gene Hawkins, SWUTC Researcher, SWUTC Associate Director for the Transportation Scholars Program at Texas A&M University, SWUTC Executive Committee member and Associate Professor in the Texas A&M Zachry Department of Civil Engineering received the 2012 Wilbur Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award from ITE International at their Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, August 15th.

ITE Awards the Wilbur S. Smith award annually to recognize a transportation educator who has made an outstanding contribution to the transportation profession by relating academic studies to the actual practice of transportation.  The award recognizes Hawkins for his commitment to the professional development of his students.

The wording on the award reads, in part:  “Dr. Hawkins typifies the ‘best of the best’ in his personal commitment to achieving excellence, both as an academician and as a professional.  His commitment to students has been demonstrated by the personal attention that he gives to his students and the assistance he gives them in furthering their careers.”

During this three-decade long education career, Hawkins has been very active in ITE activities, including as the Texas A&M ITE student chapter advisor from 2007 to 2010.  Texas A&M ITE was awarded best chapter in the Texas District in 2008 and 2010, and the Texas A&M team won the inaugural ITE Traffic Bowl in 2010.

Chandra Bhat Named New Director of Center for Transportation Research

Dr. Chandra Bhat

Dr. Chandra Bhat

Chandra Bhat has been named director of the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at The University of Texas at Austin.

Bhat, a senior SWUTC researcher and professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, assumed the role of director on Sept. 1. He is the fourth director in the history of the center, which was founded in 1963.

CTR is a nationally recognized research organization focusing on transportation research, education, workforce development and technology commercialization. The center brings in approximately $15 million in research funding annually, develops numerous safety innovations, and influences transportation policy on the state and national level.

“Chandra is an accomplished educator and researcher who has made many significant contributions to transportation research, technologies and policy making,” said Gregory L. Fenves, dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering. “His combination of advanced research skills and practical experience will position CTR to meet tomorrow’s transportation challenges.”

As director of CTR, Bhat oversees an extensive research portfolio that addresses many aspects of transportation, including traffic congestion relief, transportation policy, environmental and energy impacts and driver behavior. He leads a staff of about 80 faculty researchers, 20 professional researchers, and more than 50 graduate and undergraduate students.

“My efforts will focus on building up CTR’s recognition and reach, not only within the state, but nationally and internationally,” Bhat said. “I see huge opportunities in policy, technology and linking our research to the needs of society.”

Bhat, who has served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin since 1997, obtained his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is a leading expert in the areas of travel demand modeling and travel behavior analysis. His research has resulted in more than 150 refereed journal articles.

He has spoken to USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC News and ABC News, as well has been featured in local and national publications.

Bhat is a member of the university’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers, UT Austin. He has received the S.S. Steinberg Award from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association; the Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award; and the James Laurie Prize awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Bhat succeeds Randy B. Machemehl who joined the center as director in 1999.

Under Machemehl’s guidance, CTR’s annual research revenue increased from $7 to $16 million. He also helped prepare more than 100 students annually for positions in government, academia and private industry.

“Dr. Machemehl successfully balanced his academic schedule of teaching and mentoring with the challenges of leading CTR at a time of great change and did so with diligence, consistency, fairness and respect for everyone he dealt with, including sponsors, colleagues, staff and students,” said Sharon Wood, chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering.”

 

Amy Epps Martin Wins AAPT Award, Elected to Board of Directors

Amy Epps-Martin

Amy Epps Martin

Key SWUTC researcher and Texas Transportation Institute Research Engineer Amy Epps Martin was recently awarded the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) Board of Directors Award of Recognition during their annual meeting in Austin, TX. Epps Martin also began her term as one of two AAPT Directors at Large.

“I’ve been involved with this organization for several years, so it was a big honor to receive this award,” says Epps Martin, who is also a professor of Materials Engineering at Texas A&M University.

AAPT is a leader in the advancement of asphalt paving technology with over 800 members from every continent in the world. Members depend on the association as an authoritative source for the latest developments in the field and as a hub for communicating with fellow professionals. The organization meets annually and their activities include asphalt-related technical sessions, symposia, poster sessions and workshops presented by experts in all aspects of asphalt paving technology from around the world.

Zhang Receives 2012 James Laurie Prize

Zhanmin Zhang

Zhanmin Zhang

Dr. Zhanmin Zhang, SWUTC Executive Committee member and key researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, has received the 2012 James Laurie Prize from the Transportation and Development Institute within the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The James Laurie Prize recognizes contributions to the advancement of transportation engineering in research, planning, design, or construction.

Dr. Zhang was recognized “for his contributions to the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the management of highway infrastructure systems and, in particular, his development of a state-of-the-art pavement condition performance prediction process and pavement needs estimates for different pavement condition goals.”

Wang Receives CUTC-ARTBA New Faculty Award

Dr. Bruce Wang

Dr. Bruce Wang

Dr. Bruce Wang, key SWUTC researcher and Assistant Professor in Transportation Engineering at Texas A&M University, was the recipient of CUTC-ARTBA New Faculty Award presented during the January 21st Annual CUTC Awards Banquet in Washington D.C.  This award, presented annually, recognizes outstanding teaching and research contributions to the transportation field by a new tenure-track faculty member in transportation.

Dr. Wang has a commendable record in all the fields of teaching, research and service.  In teaching, Dr. Wang was nominated as the Wisconsin Teaching Fellow in 2007 by the University of Wisconsin system.  And his graduate students have won multiple competitive national awards, which includes the most recent 2010 Pikarsky Memorial Awardto his MS graduate Kai Yin.  In research, Dr. Wang has a very high expectation.  He has had 10 publications in the leading journals Transportation Research (B, C, and E) alone, an exceptional achievement.  His research projects have been funded by various agencies such as the federal DOT, DOE, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the university transportation center programs (SWUTC, UTCM and CFIRE).  Additionally he has been active for collaborative efforts between UTCM, CFIRE and TransNow.  Dr. Wang’s professional service is outstanding.  He currently chairs the TRB Freight Planning and Logistics Committee (AT015) and its Freight Modeling and Best Paper Awards Subcommittees.  Under his tenure, the AT015 has attracted papers for the annual meeting from less than thirty each year to over sixty each year now.  Last but not the least, Dr. Wang serves on multiple editorial boards of transportation research journals including the most prestigious Transportation Research Part B:  Methodological.  His other international service includes being an Associate Editor for the IEEE World Conference on ITS in 2010 and 2011 respectively.  Dr. Wang’s achievements are outstanding.  We believe Dr. Wang commands a significant potential to make continued contribution to the field of transportation.

Photo of Bruce Wang receiving New Faculty Award

Dr. Genevieve Giuliano, CUTC President, presents New Faculty Award to Dr. Bruce Wang

Little Named ASCE Distinguished Member

Dallas Little

Dallas Little

Dr. Dallas N. Little, SWUTC Executive Committee member and key SWUTC researcher at Texas A&M University, was selected a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).  Little is an associate director of the International Center for Aggregates Research and a senior fellow at the Texas Transportation Institute.  Distinguished Membership is the highest recognition ASCE confers and is reserved for members who have attained the grade of member or fellow and who demonstrate acknowledged eminence in some branch of engineering or in its related arts and sciences.

Dr. Little was selected for this recognition for his ground-breaking research in asphalt mixture healing and surface energy, advancing pavement mechanics, and innovative subgrade stabilization as well as his leadership in transportation engineering education and practice.

Zhang and SWUTC Graduate Student Co-Authors Receive Best Paper Award

Zhanmin Zhang

Zhanmin Zhang

A paper co-authored by SWUTC key researcher Dr. Zhanmin Zhang, and two of his SWUTC supported transportation graduate students, Epigmenio Gonzalez and Wenxing Liu, was selected to receive the Best Paper Award by the 8th International Conference on Managing Pavements Assets (ICMPA). An award plaque for their paper based on their SWUTC research work  “A Methodological Framework for Minimizing the Budget Fluctuations on Highway Maintenance Programs” was presented at the 8th ICMPA held in Santiago, Chile in November 2011.

The ICMPA is designed to focus on issues associated with fulfilling the social, economic, and environmental responsibilities for sustainable, well managed, better roads. The 8th ICMPA was attended by nearly 400 delegates of academia, practitioners, and government officials representing countries from all five continents.