University of Alabama at Birmingham
Virginia Sisiopiku, Ph.D.,
Photography: Steve Wood Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Professor Virginia Sisiopiku, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2024 Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award by the Southern District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. With more than 20 years of educational experience at UAB, Sisiopiku, founder and principal director of the UAB Transportation Engineering and Development Laboratory, or TREND Lab, has dedicated three decades to the improvement of the transportation field.
“I am truly honored to receive the SDITE Transportation Engineering Education Award that recognizes my lifelong commitment to educating the next generation of leaders in the transportation engineering field,” Sisiopiku said. “It is exciting to be in the company of a very select group of colleagues who received such distinction in the past, and I greatly appreciate the nomination and support of my department’s chair, Dr. Avinash Unnikrishnan.”
The Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award was established in 2009 and was created to honor an individual who has been committed to the education of future leaders in the transportation engineering field. Sisiopiku is recognized by the Southern District for her display of leadership and integrity in every area of the transportation profession.
Sisiopiku believes this recognition is equally important for the UAB School of Engineering as it is given to only one transportation faculty member per year in the Southeast region.
“Having a faculty member selected among so many outstanding faculty from universities across nine states reflects positively on the School of Engineering and its standing within the academic community,” Sisiopiku said.
Along with her team at the TREND Lab, Sisiopiku seeks to continue to find smart solutions to improve the efficiency of the transportation network to support livability, sustainability and equity in transportation.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international organization and community of transportation professionals committed to the improvement of the transportation field through the advancement of knowledge and practices among engineers, planners, educators and researchers. The Southern District includes higher-education institutions from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.