Three engineering Ph.D. students have received prestigious 2024 Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships, a showing that highlights Vanderbilt’s strengths as a hub of transportation research, connected cities, resilience and sustainability.
Fellows are selected through a competitive process that includes university panels and a national selection panel. The awards, up to $35,000 each, are made by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.
Eisenhower fellows will be recognized at the 103rd annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies in Washington D.C. in January 2024. The awardees are:
Lauren Gardner, P.E., civil and environmental engineering, advised by Mark Abkowitz, Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering, professor of engineering management and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies. Her research focuses on transportation asset management and resilience planning. This is her second year as an Eisenhower Fellow.
George Gunter, civil and environmental engineering, advised by Dan Work, professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of computer science. Gunter’s research focuses on safety and security in applications of cyber-physical systems to civil infrastructure. This is his second year as an Eisenhower Fellow. Gunter is a research assistant in the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems and Vanderbilt Engineering Center for Transportation and Operational Resiliency.
Matt Nice, civil and environmental engineering, advised by Dan Work, professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of computer science. Nice’s research interests are broadly in transportation cyber-physical systems, which includes autonomous vehicles, sensor networks, and human-in-the-loop systems. Nice works on the I-24 MOTION/CIRCLES Consortium project. This is his third year as an Eisenhower Fellow. He is a research assistant in the Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems and Vanderbilt Engineering Center for Transportation and Operational Resiliency.
The Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program aims to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation and advance transportation workforce development.