Mohamed Abdel-Aty is the recipient of the 2020 Roy W. Crum Award, to be received at the 2021 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. Aty is recognized for his distinguished achievements in the development of immediate practical applications of his fundamental and developmental research results as well as for contributing broadly to the science of transportation safety. His work and accomplishments will leave an enduring legacy, which will undoubtedly continue to improve transportation safety research, methods, and practice.
Named for Roy W. Crum, who served as the board’s director from 1928 until his death in 1951, the Crum Award recognizes outstanding leadership in transportation research or research administration.
Aty’s main expertise and interests are in the areas of traffic safety, big data and data analytics, intelligent transportation systems, simulation, and connected/automated vehicles. He has pioneered many ideas that are changing road safety research and practice from a reactive approach to proactive real-time implementation. This body of work changed current practices in safety and active traffic management in the US and around the world. His research areas involve more than engineering, and crosses over into planning. For example, he conducted research on transportation safety planning to encourage an explicit safety focus in planning to meet future demand.
A Trustee Chair, Pegasus Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction at the University of Central Florida, he has conducted groundbreaking studies in those areas. He was the first to study various aspects of road safety, including real-time safety analytics, pro-active safety management, transportation safety planning, and the safety of toll roads and plazas, and provide guidance for safety improvements. In addition, he accomplished extensive work in real-time crash risk visualization using integrated tools for traffic safety evaluation and management, winning several awards for this work.
He has worked tirelessly to help ensure research findings are known and implemented by publishing more than 630 papers, including 84 papers in the Transportation Research Record, 235 papers presented at TRB, and one of the 5 most highly cited papers in the TRR in 2019; placing him as one of the most cited and impactful authors in traffic safety (web of Science). He is serving as Editor-in-Chief of Accident Analysis & Prevention, and as Associate Editor of Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives; and on editorial boards for the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Transportation Research C and the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation. Perhaps his most visible and enduring contribution to road safety lies with the more than 85 Ph.D. and MS students he has educated, trained, and mentored. He is continuing the tradition as he is now mentoring 15 Ph.D. students as they finish their degrees.
In addition to his many professional accomplishments, Aty has provided uninterrupted service to the Transportation Research Board since 1998 serving on several safety related standing technical committees and chairing a subcommittee. Aty has been a regular attendee at the TRB Annual Meeting since 1994.
- Published by the Transportation Research Board
- Dec. 11, 2020