Robert Stammer

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Emeritus

Research Focus

Research focus: Highway and Pedestrian Safety, Crash Investigations, Traffic Engineering, Transportation Systems Design, Human Factors, and Multi-modal Freight

Dr. Stammer has conducted transportation planning, design, and operations research in a variety of areas in both urban and rural settings and involving both passenger and freight transportation. Driver and pedestrian safety have been particular areas of interest in recent years. He is the PI and will soon complete a research project to develop a "Multi-modal Freight Safety, Security and Environmental Routing Tool" using GIS technology. He was also the PI for an earlier research project entitled "I-40 Trucking Operations, Safety Analyses and Strategic Planning Initiatives". This research for the Tennessee Department of Transportation studied various safety issues on I-40 as it stretches from the Mississippi River into North Carolina over 400+ miles. A secondary component of this research looked at several railroad shipping issues across Tennessee. Because of his experience and knowledge, he has testified in a number of transportation legal actions as a transportation engineering expert witness and accident re-constructionist.

Biography

Dr. Stammer is Professor of Civil and Evironmental Engineering, Emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He has also served as an Assistant and Associate Dean in the School of Engineering for over ten years, and as an Assistant Provost in Athletics for four years. He also served as the Director of the Engineering Science Program for over twenty years. He will start his thirty-fourth year of full-time employment at Vanderbilt in the Fall of 2014, was an adjunct professor for two years earlier while still working full-time for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, and has a 1972 undergraduate B.E. from Vanderbilt in Civil Engineering. GO DORES!

Awards include Vanderbilt's prestigious "Chancellor's Cup", the School of Engineering's E.J. White Engineering Faculty Outstanding Service Award, and several "Outstanding Teaching" awards from Vanderbilt and elsewhere.

He is a Past President of the Nashville Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (in 1988 when it was the Nashville Section and not a Branch) and recently received his ASCE Life Member Certificate for lifetime service. He is a Fellow in the Institute of Transportation Engineers, a former President of the 9-State Southern Section of ITE (SDITE), served as the SDITE elected Director on the ITE International Board of Direction for three years, and has received SDITE's two highest awards for Outstanding Service and Excellence as an Educator. On the international level of ITE, besides being a former Director for the Southern District, he is former chair of the Transportation Expert Witness Council and is currently serving as Co-chair of a Student Chapter Committee to improve the experiences of all students in over 150 ITE university chapters.

"Doc Bob" regularly teachs the introductory transportation engineering class to sophomores and upper level/graduate classes in Traffic Engineering, Transportation Design, and Transportation Planning. His family consists of wife Jane, two sons, and four precious granddaughters. Hobbies include golf, swimming, and just enjoying family and friends.

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