IE11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

UC Davis Professor Leading U.S. Transportation Research in 2015

Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), has been appointed the 2015 chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee, which provides independent scientific advice to the nation on transportation issues.

Dan Sperling


Dan Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), has been appointed the 2015 chair of the Transportation Research Board’s Executive Committee, which provides independent scientific advice to the nation on transportation issues.

The appointment was announced at the 94th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, held January 11-15 in Washington, D.C. The Transportation Research Board is a division of the National Research Council, the private, nonprofit institution that serves as the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and as an independent adviser to the U.S. government.

The executive committee Sperling will chair in 2015 oversees the board’s programs and activities, engaging more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and transportation researchers and practitioners from academia and the private and public sectors, including state departments of transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The board’s mission is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through objective research.

"The Transportation Research Board is hugely influential as the focal point of transportation research activities in the United States and the world," said Sperling. "I am honored to lead it and look forward to helping broaden its engagement with environmental and other sustainability issues."

Sperling founded ITS-Davis in 1991, and it has become internationally known during the past 25 years. In 2013, ITS-Davis was selected in a national competition to lead the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, a two-year, $11.2 million research, education and outreach consortium of six universities for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Institute of Transportation Studies has more than 150 faculty, staff, and student researchers.

Sperling is a professor of civil engineering, and environmental science and policy at UC Davis. He is an international expert on transportation technology assessment, energy and environmental aspects of transportation, and transportation policy.

UC-Davis said Sperling has authored or co-authored more than 200 technical papers and 12 books, including "Two Billion Cars" In 2013, he received the Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation, described as the Nobel Prize for environmental sciences.

He has served as a board member of the California Air Resources Board since 2007, where his chief responsibilities are implementation oversight of the state’s climate change, alternative fuels, vehicle travel and land use, and zero emission vehicle programs.

This story was excerpted from ITS-Davis.