Barbara Newell and Monica Menendez.

Monica Menendez received the Gordon F. Newell award for graduate students in transportation on Friday, April 14, in a presentation in the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library by Michael Cassidy, professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Excellence in doctoral research, distinction in teaching and citizenship in the transportation engineering community are all taken into account, Cassidy noted. Mendendez is pursuing a Ph.D. in transportation engineering.

"This year's fellow distinguished herself by performing outstanding research in traffic flow theory, by having developed an improved way of describing driver lane-changing behavior," he said, adding that Menendez's distinction as a teacher and citizen in the academic community was "beyond question." (She also won an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructorship award this year. See story.)

The Gordon F. Newell Memorial Fellowship was established by Newell's widow, Barbara Newell, to honor her late husband, the acclaimed traffic flow theorist, who served nearly four decades on the Berkeley faculty. It is intended to recognize a student whose performance has been exemplary.

The award is only granted when the selection committee decides there is a worthy candidate, Cassidy explained.