CTR Fellows
The Center for Transportation Research has established itself as a go-to source for information, research, and expertise in all areas of transportation. In 2014, CTR established its Fellows program to recognize some of the people who have helped advance that work. The program’s purpose is to recognize and improve collaboration among faculty across the university who are focused on transportation-related research.
2020–2021
2020-2021 CTR Faculty Fellows, from left to right: Courtney Cronley, Pankaj Dahal, Asad Khattak, Alex Rodrigues, and Xiaopeng Zhao.
Dr. Courtney Cronley is an Associate Professor in UTK’s College of Social Work. Her research spans transportation equity, feminist geography, and access to opportunities for individuals experiencing homelessness, poverty, and housing disruption. She teaches graduate-level courses in applied statistics and research methods. She is a faculty liaison for the National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services and leads the UT AccessKnox Community of Scholars. She presents nationally and internationally on transportation equity and community-based planning, and currently co-leads a study of latent transportation demand among families facing economic and housing insecurity.
Mr. Pankaj Dahal is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil & Environment Engineering, and he is also pursuing his Master’s in Statistics from Haslam College of Business. He graduated with a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. His research interests include GIS for transportation planning, GIS modeling and visualization, data mining and statistical analysis, machine learning, and deep learning. Most recently, he has been assisting Dr. David Clarke to study railroad traffic flows within the U.S. Among his contributions, he updated the UT rail network, prepared data sets using the Carload WayBill sample, and ran the RAILNET model to produce results.
Dr. Asad Khattak is Beaman Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UTK. He serves as the Associate Director for the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety—a competitively awarded US Department of Transportation National University Transportation Center. His research focuses on intelligent transportation technologies, transportation safety, and sustainable transportation. Dr. Khattak received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University. He is Editor of Science Citation Indexed Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Associate Editor of International Journal of Sustainable Transportation.
Dr. Alex Rodrigues is a Senior Lecturer of Supply Chain Management in the Haslam College of Business at UTK. Dr. Rodrigues has published in supply chain management and logistics journals. He is co-author of the book Business Logistics: The Brazilian Perspective. He has also acted as the chief editor of the journal Latin American Business Review between 2012 and 2014. His teaching and research interests involve: Global logistics strategy and operations; Global/national logistics expenditures and performance indexes; Humanitarian/disaster relief logistics; Supply chain disruptions; Inventory strategy and deployment; and Empirical/theoretical modeling of supply chains.
Dr. Xiaopeng Zhao is a professor of mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering at UTK. Dr. Zhao’s teaching and research interests include neural engineering, brain-computer interface, social robotics, Alzheimer’s care, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computational physiology, and dynamics and control. He is the director of the One UT Collaboration and Innovation Grant on Detection, Care and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. He has served as the faculty lead for the Brain Computer Interface Community of Scholars at the University of Tennessee since 2018.
2019–2020
2019-2020 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Melissa Bowers, David Icove, Tim Rials, James Ostrowski, and Hunter Sinclair.
Melissa Bowers is Associate Professor and Beaman Professor of Business in the Haslam College of Business.
David Icove is Underwriters Laboratories Professor of Practice in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Tim Rials is Associate Dean of AgResearch at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
James Ostrowski is Associate Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Director of Graduate Studies.
Hunter Sinclair is an M.S. candidate in the Department of Geography.
2018–2019
2018-2019 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Candace Brakewood, Linda Daugherty, Hyun Kim, Xueping Li, and Edward Taylor.
Candace Brakewood is Assistant Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Linda Daugherty is Assistant Director, Center for Applied Research and Evaluation.
Hyun Kim is Associate Professor, Department of Geography.
Xueping Li is Associate Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering.
Edward Taylor is Director, Construction Industry Research & Policy Center.
2017–2018
2017-2018 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Qing Cao, Rachel Chen, Brad Collett, Butch Irick, and Lance Saunders.
Qing Cao is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Rachel Chen is Director, Center for Sustainable Business and Development.
Brad Collett is Associate Professor of Plant Sciences with a faculty appointment to the School of Landscape Architecture.
Butch Irick is Research Assistant Professor and Research Director of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering.
Lance Saunders is Assistant Professor of Marketing & Supply Chain Management.
2016–2017
2016-2017 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Richard Bennett, Eugene Fitzhugh, Anahita Khojandi, Jonathan Overly, and Georg Schaur.
Richard Bennett is Director of the Engineering Fundamentals program and professor of civil and environmental engineering
Eugene Fitzhugh is associate professor of kinesiology, recreation and sport studies.
Anahita Khojandi is assistant professor in industrial and systems engineering.
Jonathan Overly is founder and director of the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition and a member of the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Hall of Fame.
Georg Schaur is associate professor and Spiva Scholar in economics.
2015–2016
2015-2016 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Mingzhou Jin, John Bell, John Ma, Charles Sims, Subhadeep Chakraborty, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering.
Mingzhou Jin is Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering;
John Bell is Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
John Ma is Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Charles Sims is Department of Economics, Howard Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.
Subhadeep Chakraborty is Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering.
2014–2015
2014-2015 CTR Faculty Fellows, (from left to right): Rapinder Sawhney, Christopher Cherry, Jennifer Richards, Mary C. Holcomb, and Shih-Lung Shaw.
Rapinder Sawhney is Heath Fellow in Business and Engineering, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Christopher Cherry is Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Jennifer Richards is Department of Food Science and Technology.
Mary C. Holcomb is Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
Shih-Lung Shaw is Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Geography.