news>>archive>>Samer Madanat succeeds Martin Wachs as ITS Director
(July
2005) Samer Madanat, Professor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering andDirector of the California Partners for Advanced Transit
and Highways (PATH), has been named Director of UC Berkeley’s
Institute of Transportation Studies.
Madanat will succeed Martin Wachs, who has served as Director of the Institute for six years.Founded in 1948, it is home to approximately 50 faculty members, 50 staff researchers and more than 100 graduate students.
"The Institute has a distinguished history and is one of the most venerable transportation research centers in the country," Wachs said. "In becoming its fifth director, Samer has an opportunity to lead the Institute in a period of enormous challenges and opportunties.
"He is very well qualified by virtue of his own success in research, teaching and leadership, and under his direction I believe that the Institute will continue to prosper and expand."
Madanat, 42, specializes in the problems of managing the maintenance and rehabilitation of transportation facilities. He received an undergraduate civil engineering degree at the University of Jordan, followed by a Master’s and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he specialized in transportation infrastructure systems. In 1996 he joined the faculty at Berkeley, and in1999 he received the Science and Technology Award from the Office of the President of the University for his proposal to improve the way infrastructure maintenance decisions are made. The award is given annually to one faculty member in the UC system. He is the author of more than 40 journal articles, and is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Infrastructure Systems of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Wachs served as Acting Director of the Institute from August 1998 until he was named Director in January 1999. He holds appointments as Professor of City and Regional Planning and as Carlson Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Madanat's appointment as Director is effective starting July 1, 2005. At that time, he will step down as Director of PATH, a post he has held since summer 2003, to be succeeded by Alexander Skabardonis, Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Additional information:
Photo by Peg Skorpinski
