The UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) is pleased to announce that Dr. Brian Lee will join the College this fall as assistant professor in transportation systems in the School of Engineering. Lee received his PhD in urban design and planning from the University of Washington in 2009, his MS degree in civil and environmental engineering from Northwestern University in 2003, and his Bachelor of Applied Science in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2001.

Dr. Lee is a joint appointment between the School of Engineering and the UVM Transportation Research Center (TRC) that will also be funding Dr. Lee's research program as part of a U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) grant to the TRC.

"Dr. Lee will join our UVM CEMS Complex Systems Center and the UVM Transportation Research Center to work towards addressing sustainable transportation issues," says Bernard "Chip" Cole, CEMS Interim Dean. "His knowledge of quantitative engineering, studies on urban theories, planning practices and social and economic processes provide a solid foundation for ground-breaking research."

Dr. Lisa Aultman-Hall, TRC Director, indicates that, "Dr. Lee's work will be key to advancing transdisciplinary, cross-campus research programs around transportation systems as they relate to the environment, the economy and public health."

Dr. Lee is an international researcher with expertise in agent-based analysis and empirical modeling who has keen interests in multimodal transport, and a record of interdisciplinary collaborations on policy-relevant projects. His joint efforts with researchers have created advances in modeling the complex interactions between transportation and land use. His peer-reviewed paper, "Parcel-level measure of public transit accessibility to destinations," was presented in 2005 at the Access to Destination: Rethinking the Transportation Future Proceedings held at the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies and published by Elsevier.

"I believe the UVM community will benefit from my diverse experiences," says Dr. Lee. "As a Canadian-born Chinese who has lived in four countries on three continents, I appreciate a wide range of individual and societal perspectives and am enthused about bringing examples from diverse places to classrooms and research labs at UVM."

In 2007, Dr. Lee was recognized as 1 of 16 internationally selected students by the Institute on International Digital Government Research for a one-week program on information technologies. He also received a two-year national graduate award in 2007 from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, and a two-year Canadian PhD award from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

CEMS and TRC Share Mutual Goals

CEMS and TRC are committed to conducting innovative interdisciplinary research; CEMS focuses on a holistic undergraduate experience with emphasis on interrelated fields of study. The appointment of Dr. Lee aligns with the CEMS goal of training students in highly collaborative and multi-disciplinary environments through innovative systems that combine technologies from a variety of fields.

In addition to interdisciplinary research, TRC's mission is to provide education and outreach programs that advance sustainable transportation systems. The TRC conducts and funds interdisciplinary research to connect transportation, environment and health in the areas of: land use and transportation systems; tailpipe emissions; tourism travel; seasonal patterns in travel (walking, biking, emissions and accessibility); transportation system efficiency; transportation finance; and safety.