D. Grant Mickle Award
A prestigious “best paper” award was given to a team of Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers during the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 90th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. The D. Grant Mickle Award for the outstanding paper in operations and maintenance was awarded to Kay Fitzpatrick, Susan T. Chrysler, Vichika Iragavarapu, and Eun Sug Park, for their paper, “Detection Distances to Crosswalk Markings: Transverse, Continental, and Bar Pairs,” published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2250.
“This project was a wonderful example of how colleagues with different talents can team together and generate an extremely successful product. The enthusiasm and desire to produce an exceptional project was infectious. We were all willing to improve our portion of the project so that the final product was high quality along with, of course, being usable by the profession.
After the conclusion of the project, an engineer from another state sent an email complimenting the team regarding the usability of the findings. This email reinforced the value of the research and for us, was particularly gratifying in that our work is being appreciated and used. The results are influencing policy decisions regarding pedestrian crosswalk markings on a national level.
The process to earn the Mickle award includes multiple steps. To have several peer review committees select this paper as the best is humbling and overwhelming. We appreciate having our work recognized by our peers.” Award winning research team
The D. Grant Mickle Award was established in 1976 and may be given annually for the outstanding paper published in the field of operation, safety, and maintenance of transportation facilities. It honors the fifth executive director, who was later appointed a member of the Board’s Executive Committee and became its 33rd chairman.
Dresser Receives McKelvey Award
Retired Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Scientist George Dresser received the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 2012 Francis X. McKelvey Award during a reception on January 23, 2012, in Washington, DC.
Dresser retired from TTI in 2004, following a 35-year career, 25 of which he served as manager of the Transportation Planning Program. Early in his career, Dresser worked with the Texas Aeronautics Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division, where he developed the methodology for state airport system planning still used today. His work dates back to the early 1970s, when he was instrumental in developing the state’s first Texas Aeronautical Facilities Plan.
As part of his work in aviation systems planning, he helped pioneer the regional planning meeting process, where airport planners visit airports in the system and hold public meetings in the airport communities to discuss the needs of local airports, their role in the community, and how stakeholders can help each other in building and developing the local, regional and state economies.
Prior to his work with airports, Dresser began his aviation career in the U.S. Navy as a naval flight officer. He retired as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserves with 3,500 hours of flight time in the RA5C Vigilante, the SP2H Neptune, and P3A/B Orion aircraft.
In his nomination, TTI Director Dennis Christiansen noted that Dresser’s “commitment and contributions in both research and the development of professionals make him an ideal candidate to receive this award.”
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