The American Society of Civil Engineers recently announced its election of 14 Society members to join the elite rank of Distinguished Members. There are now 615 Distinguished Members ever selected to this honor. The 2011 class will be formally inducted at ASCE’s 141st Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, October 20, 2011.
In the Class of 2011 is an Institute member:
Robert E. Paaswell, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE
Robert E. Paaswell, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE is an acknowledged leader in transportation engineering research and education. During his 45-year career he has made numerous innovative and groundbreaking contributions through creation and direction of long-lasting research institutions, including the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois, the regional Transportation Research Center at the City University of New York, and the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems.
Dr. Paaswell is highly regarded for leading research in interdisciplinary topics that include growth limits; transit technology, governance, and performance; travel behavior, congestion impacts and mitigation; impacts of delayed investments, labor-management process, and public-private relationships. His service to the public welfare in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation included fostering sponsored research. There and in academia, he made significant contributions to the evolution of the University Research Program which now includes over forty universities. He received the U.S. Secretary of Transportation's Medal for Distinguished Service in recognition of the quality of this work. He has also performed research work in Israel, Great Britain, and China.
Dr. Paaswell has combined research with teaching and mentoring. He has served as a professor of civil engineering nearly continuously since 1962, including service as Chair of the Department of Environmental Design and Planning at the University of New York at Buffalo. He has developed courses in transportation policy and taught hundreds of civil engineering students. He is well-known for encouraging graduate students to work on projects directly with community groups, providing a critically valuable connection between academia and professional practice. He has guided dozens of junior colleagues during his long career and is noted for his deep respect, optimistic attitude and infectious good humor.
From 1986 to 1989, Dr. Passwell was Executive Director of the Chicago Transit Authority under Mayor Walter Washington. As CEO, he managed North America's second largest transit system of bus and rail networks with 13,000 employees, a $1 billion annual operating and capital budget, and active city politics, at a time when federal aid was declining and new regulations were adding cost. This experience provided him with tremendous pragmatic insight during the last twenty years of his research and teaching.
Dr. Paaswell has been an active member of several professional organizations, including ASCE, TRB, and the Transit Standards Consortium. He has been active on regional and community boards and served as organizer and chair for numerous construction and transportation conferences. He has consulted to a large number of clients on projects including employment access, air terminal geometry, light rail transit design, transit mall design, and planning. He was selected by Rutgers University as an Outstanding Civil Engineering Alumnus.
