Virginia Sisiopiku, Ph.D., was recently named the recipient of the 2024 Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award by the Southern District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (SDITE). The award recognizes an individual who contributed outstandingly to the education of future leaders in the transportation engineering field through excellence in teaching, mentorship, scholarship, and service. Sisiopiku was honored for “her unceasing dedication to the community, the transportation engineering profession, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.”

A professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, Sisiopiku is the founding director of the UAB TREND Lab and has 30 years of professional experience in the transportation field as an academic and a consulting transportation engineer. She is also the founder of the UAB ITE Student Chapter and has served as its faculty adviser for more than 20 years. Over her academic career she developed and taught 12 courses, secured over $13 million in research funding and served as faculty adviser of 78 master’s and doctoral students, and five post docs and visiting scholars. To date, her research work has produced more than 240 refereed books, chapters, journal articles, and peer reviewed conference papers and resulted in nine technical paper awards.

A Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) since 2014, Sisiopiku is also a past recipient of the UAB Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship; the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching; and the ECOB Engineering Educator of the Year Award.