Robert E. Skinner, Jr. Distinguished Transportation Research Management Award

The Award recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement in management, administration, promotion, fostering, and implementation of transportation research. The recipient should be someone who has distinguished themselves through leadership of a major transportation research program or programs that have contributed to advances in transportation over the course of their career.

In 2021, the Executive Committee established the Robert E. Skinner, Jr. Distinguished Transportation Research Management Award. The Award is named for Robert E. Skinner, Jr. who served TRB for more than 30 years, including 21 years as its executive director from 1994 to 2015.

Who Can Nominate

Anyone in the transportation research or research implementation fields.

Nomination Process

The nomination portal will be opened during the beginning in June. All nominations must be submitted no later than July 31. A single nomination may be jointly-submitted/supported by multiple nominators, but nominators must designate a corresponding nominator and all nominators must currently be or formally have been in the transportation research or research implementation fields.

Nominators will be expected to summarize information on their candidate in each of the following areas: 1) Transportation research program leadership roles; 2) Contributions to advances in transportation; 3) TRB volunteer involvement; and 4) Other intangibles nominators believe make their candidate eligible for a lifetime achievement award.

Summary information for a candidate for each of these areas may not exceed 400 words for a total of no more than 1,600 words per nomination. Nominators will have the option to upload their candidate’s bio or provide a link to their candidate’s bio online. Nominators are limited to nominating no more than one candidate per nomination cycle.  Current TRB staff are not eligible to receive this award.

Nominators will be notified upon a decision by the selection committee. The award recipient will be notified in October and a formal announcement is released later in the Fall. The award is dated the year the recipient is named and is presented at the Chair’s Plenary Session at the January TRB Annual Meeting.

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee will consist of the Chair and Vice Chair of the TRB Executive Committee, Chair of the Executive Committee’s Subcommittee on Planning and Policy Review, Chair of the TRB Division Committee, and the Executive Director of TRB.

Past Recipients

2024 - Rolf R. Schmitt
2023 - No Award Presented
2022 - Eugene R. (Gene) Russell, Sr.
2021 - Robert E. Skinner, Jr.