Mark Abkowitz, a Vanderbilt University professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, recently won the Charles H. Hochman Lifetime Achievement Award from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.
In the citation, the board pointed out that Abkowitz had served on the Committee on the Transportation of Hazardous Materials for many years, including as chairman from 1990-96. He also was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board and served from 2002-11.
“Dr. Abkowitz pioneered the use of GIS as a spatial analysis tool for performing hazardous materials risk routing, which is now common practice,” the citation reads. “Dr. Abkowitz’s research activities are far-reaching and include contributions to the work of numerous federal and state agencies, industry and academia.”
It goes on to point out that his numerous published articles and technical reports plus his contributions to education make him worthy of such recognition.
Abkowitz also recently accepted the position of chair of the National Academies’ Special Task Force on Climate Change and Energy. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is one of seven program units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. TRB’s varied activities annually engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia.
Contact
Heidi Hall, (615) 322-6614
Heidi.Hall@Vanderbilt.edu
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