Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lectureship
The Award recognizes the career contributions and achievements of an individual in one of the areas covered by TRB’s Technical Activities Division. As part of the Annual Meeting, the honorees are invited to present overviews of their area of expertise, including the evolution, the present status, and the prospects for the future.
Created in 1992, it was originally known as the Transportation Research Board Distinguished Lectureship, the Award was renamed in 2002 in honor of the eighth TRB Executive Director, Thomas B. Deen, who served with distinction from 1980 to 1994.
Who Can Nominate
Technical Activities Division Group Chairs. Chairs have discretion on establishing the nomination process within their committee group.
Nomination Process
Each group chair may nominate no more than one person. Nominations shall be in writing and shall be no more than three pages in length. Nominations shall include a biographical summary, current position, education and work experience, professional activities, TRB involvement, major achievements, awards, publications, general topic for the lecture, and any other information that would help in the selection process. Nominations will be evaluated based upon the career contributions and achievements of the individual in the areas covered by TRB's Technical Activities Division and the potential of the individual to present a lecture that will be valuable, interesting, informative, and timely to Annual Meeting attendees. Nominations should be submitted to the director of the TRB Technical Activities Division no later than one month before the Technical Activities Council’s summer meeting, which is normally held in mid-June.
The award recipient will be notified by mid-July and a formal announcement is released later in the Fall. The award is dated for the year it is presented at the Thomas B. Deen Distinguished Lectureship at the TRB Annual Meeting.
Selection Committee
The TRB Technical Activities Council
Past Recipients and Lecture Title
2027 - KAY FITZPATRICK
Addressing Roadway Safety, One Step at a Time
2026 - DAVID HARKEY
Moving Road Safety Forward, Brought to You by the Letter C
2025 - SANDI ROSENBLOOM
How Little We Really Know: The Unrecognized Centrality of Marginal Groups in Transportation Planning and Policy
2024 - SUSAN HANDY
Shifting Gears: Reflections on the Role of Researchers in Shaping the Ideas that Shape Transportation
2023 - CHARLES A. FUHS III
Re-envisioning Mobility on Urban Freeways: The Emergence and Evolving Roles of Managed Lanes
2022 - ANNE STRAUSS-WIEDER
Evolving with Rapidly Shifting Supply Chains and Freight Systems: The Past, the Present, and the Emerging Future
2021 - DORVAL R. CARTER, JR.
Our Work is Never Done: Examining Equity Impacts in Public Transportation
2020 - SARAH JO PETERSON
TRB's Technical Activities Committees: The Significance of Their History
2019 - JON A. EPPS
Innovative Asphalt Pavement Technology: Paving the Way for the World’s Roadways
2018 - PATRICIA L. MOKHTARIAN
The Times They Are A-Changin’: What Do the Expanding Uses of Travel Time Portend for Policy, Planning, and Life?
2017 - BRUCE M.SMITH
Ethical Issues Facing Today's Transportation Agencies: Transparency and Security, Codes of Conduct, and Public-Private Partnerships
2016- HANI S. MAHMASSANI
Micromodels and Megadata: Taming Complexity for Deep Insight and Robust Decisions
2015 - DANIEL SPERLING
The Emerging Transformation of Mobility, Vehicles, and Fuels
2014 - JOSEPH L. SCHOFER
Moving the Goods: Performance Measures and the Value Proposition for Transportation Projects
2013 - JOHN P. BROOMFIELD
A Holistic Approach to Transportation Infrastructure Maintenance and Preservation
2012 - WILLIAM W. MILLAR
Public Transportation: Today and Tomorrow
2011 - JAMES McCLELLAN
Railroads and the New Normal: Impacts of Lean and Green
2010 - MARTIN WACHS
Transportation Policy, Poverty, and Sustainability: History and Future
2009 - GERALDINE KNATZ
Local Seaport Initiatives Driving International Policy: Eliminating the Effects of Air Pollution and Drawing Up ‘Green Prints’ for Responsible Growth
2008 - MATTHEW W. WITCZAK
Pavement Performance Research Implementation: Its Uniqueness, Complexity, and Recommendations for Acceleration into Practice
2007 - GENEVIEVE GIULIANO
The Changing Landscape of Transportation Decision Making
2006 - ABBA LICHTENSTEIN
Preservation of Historic Transportation Facilities
2005 - LILLIAN C. BORRONE
Sparking the Globalized Trade and Transportation Connection: Supplying Freight System Responses to Global Trade Demands
2004 - RICHARD O. JONES
Context-Sensitive Design: Will the Vision Overcome Liability Concerns?
2003 - THOMAS B. DEEN
Policy Versus the Market: Transportation's Battleground
2002 - FRANCIS X. McKELVEY
A Perspective on Our National Air Transportation System: The Past, the Present, and the Future
2001 - DAN BURDEN
Building Communities with Transportation
2000 - ROBERT L. LYTTON
Characterizing Asphalt Pavements for Performance
1999 - ALAN E. PISARSKI
Transportation Planning, Policy, and Data: Inextricable Linkages
1998 - L. GARY BYRD
Service Life and Life of Service: The Maintenance Commitments
1997 - JOHN W. FISHER
The Evolution of Fatigue-Resistant Steel Bridges
1996 - EDWARD V. A. KUSSY
Surface Transportation and Administrative Law: Growing Up Together in the Twentieth Century
1995 - C. MICHAEL WALTON
Deployment of Transportation Research: An Enterprise in Transition
1994 - ADOLF D. MAY, JR.
Traffic Management from Theory to Practice: Past, Present, Future
1993 - BRYANT MATHER
Concrete in Transportation: Desired Performance and Specifications
1992 - CARL L. MONISMITH
Analytically Based Asphalt Design and Rehabilitation's Theory to Practice (1962-1992)