Bryan Katz was awarded the Excellence in Transportation Engineering Education Award by the Southern District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The District is comprised of over 1900 ITE members from nine States in the Southeastern United States. The award was established to recognize “an individual who contributed outstandingly to the education of future leaders in the transportation engineering field and to their local Section or the Southern District ITE.”
Katz was noted for his history of involvement with ITE, including serving as the Virginia Tech ITE Student Chapter Faculty Advisor for the last seven years. During that time, he has led the Traffic Bowl team to six appearances at the Southern District Traffic Bowl Competition. He has worked with the VASITE Board to increase visibility and involvement for the student chapter.
He has helped to coordinate and host the VASITE Spring meeting in Blacksburg in 2016 and 2018. Prior to that, he has served on the VASITE board in various roles including the Chair of the Safety Committee and the University Relations Chair.
Katz is an Assistant Professor of Practice in civil engineering. He also received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, and has 18 years of professional experience as a practicing Transportation Engineer. He is well known as one of the nation’s most respected researchers in traffic control devices. He has served as the Principal Investigator or Project Manager on over 60 projects totaling over $30 million in funding, primarily through Federal and State Department of Transportation research projects.
On top of his professional accomplishments as a practicing engineer, he has also had a profound impact on the Virginia Tech College of Engineering’s efforts toward providing a high quality online teaching experience. He was the first professor in the civil and environmental engineering department to offer the Introduction to Transportation course online. This success led him to also serve as the Chair for the Distance Learning Advisory Committee and is the College’s first Faculty Mentor to provide assistance to other professors looking to offer online courses.
This award is one of many accolades he has received in the last few years including the Virginia Tech CEE Alumni Teaching Excellence Award, Eugene D. Arnold, Jr. Outstanding Individual Activity Award through VASITE, Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, and a Favorite Faculty Award through the Virginia Tech Office of Residence Life.