Kuhn Receives ITE’s Matson Memorial Award
TTI Senior Research Engineer Beverly Kuhn is the recipient of the Theodore M. Matson Memorial Award. Kuhn received the award at the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Annual Meeting in August. The prestigious Matson Award is given annually to those considered pioneers in their engineering professions.
Kuhn has focused on transportation systems management and operations — achieving efficient transportation operations with the help of technology — for the last decade of an award-winning 30-year career. “I have always viewed transportation engineering as a form of community service, so to receive the Matson Award is an unexpected but much appreciated highlight of my career,” Kuhn says. “It means even more to see the list of past recipients — many are former professors, mentors and colleagues, for whom I have a great deal of respect.”
Kuhn has led over 50 research projects and supported numerous others for federal, state and local sponsors. She leads TTI’s System Reliability Division in the areas of advanced transportation operations and connected and automated transportation. She is an active member of the Transportation Research Board, and currently serves as the chair of the Standing Committee on Freeway Operations. She is also the president of the Brazos Valley Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
CARTEEH’s Khreis Awarded the 2018 ISEE Rebecca James Baker Award
Assistant Research Scientist Haneen Khreis with TTI’s Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health (CARTEEH) has been awarded the prestigious 2018 Rebecca James Baker Award by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. Khreis received this award for her work on the influence of traffic-related air pollution on childhood-onset asthma.
“Not all people are equally susceptible to the adverse effects of air pollution,” Khreis says. “Yet, few studies exist that look at how ethnicity might modify the risk of children developing asthma as a result of exposure to air pollution.”
Khreis is the first engineer-in-training to receive the award “created in memory of Dr. Rebecca Baker, a young investigator with a commitment to environmental epidemiology as a tool for improving public health and quality of life.” Khreis’s research assesses and quantifies the relationship between the onset of childhood asthma and the exposure to traffic-related air pollution. It also considers how ethnicity might impact the likelihood asthma will develop in children exposed to air pollution caused by traffic.
“Dr. Khreis’s research is groundbreaking and exactly the kind of innovative approach to studying health and the environment that our center is becoming known for,” says Assistant Agency Director Joe Zietsman, who leads CARTEEH. “She’s already become a thought leader in the subject matter, and the center and the industry as a whole will no doubt benefit from more of her findings in the very near future.”
Jon Epps Named 2019 Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lectureship Recipient
TTI Executive Associate Director Jon A. Epps is the 2019 recipient of the Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lectureship. Epps will deliver his lecture, “Innovative Asphalt Pavement Technology: Paving the Way for the World’s Roadways,” during the 98th Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Annual Meeting, on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
The Deen Distinguished Lectureship recognizes the career contributions and achievements of an individual in areas covered by TRB’s Technical Activities Division. Honorees present overviews of their technical areas, covering the evolution, status and prospects for the future.
Originally known as the Transportation Research Board Distinguished Lectureship, the award was renamed in 2002 in honor of the eighth TRB executive director, who served with distinction from 1980 to 1994. TRB also publishes each lecture in a volume of the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
Neology and TTI Enter Research Partnership at RELLIS Campus
TTI is partnering with Neology, a leading provider of tolling, electronic vehicle registration and public safety technologies, to establish a state-of-the-art R&D test facility at The Texas A&M University System’s RELLIS Campus.
“We look forward to collaborating with the nation’s top faculty, researchers, students and other transportation partners of TTI,” says Joe Mullis, general manager of Neology. “Our long-term relationship and investment with TTI will provide agencies and industry experts insight into the most advanced transportation solutions to meet tomorrow’s transportation-related challenges,”
The long-term master research agreement will expand and improve transportation technologies. The new RELLIS Campus, a $300 million, 2,000-acre facility with 6 miles of high-speed proving grounds, offers an ideal location for Neology to design, develop and test new technology solutions.
“We are excited to have Neology as a flagship partner at the Texas A&M RELLIS Campus,” says Christopher Poe, TTI’s assistant director for connected and automated transportation strategy. “This industry-research partnership is exactly the type of relationship that highlights the value to both Neology and Texas A&M of having industry partners working closely with faculty, researchers and students at the leading-edge of transportation technology.”
Hawkins’s Dedication to Roadway Safety Recognized with ARTBA Award
Gene Hawkins, TTI research engineer and professor in Texas A&M University’s Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, has been honored with the John “Jake” Landen Memorial Highway Safety Award in recognition of his “significant and lasting contributions to the safety of our nation’s highways.” The Traffic Safety Industry Division of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) presents the award annually.
Hawkins’s vast 35-year career in transportation engineering has included membership in numerous professional and technical organizations. Last year he was elected chairman of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Hawkins conducts research for TTI related to improving traffic control devices, especially signs, markings and signals. He previously served TTI as a division head and program manager for the Institute’s Operation and Design Division. His interest in that part of our roadway system began as a boy growing up with a traffic engineer for a father.
“This award took me completely by surprise,” Hawkins says. “I have the utmost respect for the people who have received this award in the past. Many worked behind the scenes, but ARTBA made sure they were recognized for their work. I am very honored to be a part of that group.”