AUTRI Director earns prestigious Steinberg Award for contributions to transportation education
Published: Sep 28, 2023 1:00 PM
By Jeremy Henderson
At its recent September conference in La Jolla, California, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) honored Larry Rilett, director of the Auburn University Transportation Research Institute (AUTRI), with its prestigious Steinberg Award, which annually recognizes “an individual who has made remarkable contributions to transportation education and research.”
"Dr. Rilett is one of the nation’s leading experts in transportation research and education, and this award is further testament to his work in this field,” said Mario Eden, dean of Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “We are extremely proud of him and honored to have him as part of the Auburn Engineering family.”
Before coming to Auburn in 2021, Rilett served as a distinguished professor of civil engineering and the Keith W. Klaasmeyer Chair in Engineering and Technology at the University of Nebraska, as well as the director of the Mid-America Transportation Center and the Nebraska Transportation Center.
In 2002, he received the Texas Transportation Institute TTI/Trinity Researcher Award and was awarded the University of Nebraska College of Engineering’s Research Award in 2007 and 2017. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded Rilett the 2019 Arthur M. Wellington Prize for Best Transportation-Related Paper in an ASCE journal and the 2021 Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award for “contributions to innovative research on transportation systems and collaborative leadership to develop a diverse workforce in transportation engineering.” Rilett is also the managing editor of the ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering and on the editorial board of the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems: Technology, Planning and Operations.
He has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 40 research projects pertaining to Intelligent Transportation Systems applications and large-scale transportation system modeling. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 journal articles, conference papers and technical reports, many of them widely acclaimed. He also recently served as president of the Council of University Transportation Centers, and is ranked in the top 2% of all independently cited researchers, according to a Stanford University study.
"It's obviously a great feeling whenever your work is recognized by your peers," Rilett said. “I am especially grateful that this award also helps highlight the impactful research, education and outreach work my colleagues across AUTRI are conducting to improve the safety and efficiency of the transportation systems in Alabama and across the nation."
ARTBA Research and Education Division director Karen Philbrick (left) presented the ARTBA Steinberg Award to AUTRI director Larry Rilett during the ARTBA Award Luncheon in La Jolla, California on Sept. 11. Philbrick is the Executive Director of the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University.
