CTS presented the following awards during our Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon on May 13. Congratulations to this year's recipients!
Richard P. Braun Distinguished Service Award
This award, which recognizes outstanding leadership in research and innovation, was presented to Jim Foldesi, public works director/highway engineer for St. Louis County.
Foldesi has been with the county in various engineering roles since 1992, and he has also served as past chair and current member of the University of Minnesota Duluth Civil Engineering Industry Advisory Board. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Association of County Engineers, and Minnesota County Engineers Association (MCEA), and he is the current chair of MCEA’s environmental committee. Foldesi is also past chair of the Minnesota Local Road Research Board and served for eight years, ending in 2023.
Distinguished Public Leadership Award
Minnesota House Representative John Petersburg received this award, which recognizes public leaders who have influenced innovative transportation policy directions.
Serving District 19B in southern Minnesota (including portions of Steele and Waseca Counties) since 2013, he is just finishing his sixth term. Petersburg has been transportation committee vice chair for two terms and is currently finishing his second term as transportation minority lead. He was instrumental in finishing Highway 14, working on many bonding projects benefiting the local communities, securing educational financing programs and workforce development funding, and contributing to numerous other bills and amendments.
Ray L. Lappegaard Distinguished Service Award
This award, which honors outstanding leadership, mentorship, and support for the transportation profession, was presented to Gloria Jeff, MnDOT Metro District’s livability director and previous project director for the agency’s Rethinking I-94 initiative.
An active member of the Transportation Research Board for over 40 years, Jeff is co-chair of its Committee on Transportation and Equity. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, American Planning Association, and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and chair of the AASHTO Equity Task Force. Jeff has led US government delegations in international settings, addressing transportation issues in the Asian Pacific region and the International Association of Road Congresses.
Matthew J. Huber Student Award
Named in honor of the late Professor Emeritus Matthew J. Huber, this award is presented to University of Minnesota graduate students demonstrating outstanding academic achievement in engineering, science, and technology fields. Maziar Zamanpour, a master's student in civil engineering, and Tianyi Li, a doctoral candidate in transportation engineering, received this year’s awards.
Michael Levin, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering (CEGE) and Zamanpour’s advisor, saw him defend his master’s thesis in December and is now guiding his work toward a PhD. “While finalizing his thesis on optimizing speed control of connected/automated vehicles around traffic signals, Maziar also started working on a new MnDOT red light warning running system initiative,” Levin said. “Simultaneously, he TA’d a new class and took on yet another research project—learning and employing different skills for each endeavor.”
Raphael Stern, assistant professor in CEGE and Li’s advisor, has worked with him for over three years. “Tianyi’s work on physics-informed neural networks for traffic modeling will result in a better understanding of how traffic behaves, and how to efficiently control traffic flow,” Stern said. “He has also exhibited an excellent teaching ability—combined with his intellectual horsepower and computational skills, this will make him a transportation leader in the future.”
John S. Adams Student Award
This award, named for Professor Emeritus John Adams, is presented to outstanding University of Minnesota students in the fields of policy and planning. This year’s award was presented to Gillian Greenberg, a master’s student in urban and regional planning (environmental planning concentration), and Yaxuan Zhang, a doctoral student in geographic information science.
Yingling Fan, professor at the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Greenberg’s advisor, highlighted her work as the lead research assistant on Fan’s transportation equity project. “Our project advisors and community partners repeatedly praised Gillian's research excellence, highlighting her exceptional skills in engaging communities throughout the research process, her rigorous approach to data analysis, and her skillful interpretation of research outcomes,” Fan said. “She has made invaluable contributions to transportation research at the U and in our surrounding communities.”
Ying Song, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society and Zhang’s advisor, has worked with her for six years. “Yaxuan’s dissertation research contributes to sustainable transportation development and has won several awards,” Song said. “Her research leverages cutting-edge geospatial technologies and computational methods with classic transportation theories to provide novel insights into mobility behaviors and promote equity and health in transportation planning and practice.”
Richard P. Braun Transportation Scholarship
Daniel Georgioff, an undergraduate student in civil engineering, received this year's scholarship. It is awarded to University of Minnesota undergraduate students pursuing degrees related to transportation who have demonstrated academic merit and leadership skills.
Jesse Freihammer, public works director for the City of Roseville, spoke very highly of the work Georgioff performed for that community during his stint as an engineering intern.
“Daniel was so valuable to the city we asked him to come back over Christmas break to help complete retaining wall inspections, where he displayed leadership by offering suggestions on how to improve our wall inventory,” Freihammer said. “He was a great asset to Roseville and no doubt will be valuable to other organizations in the future.”
—Maggie Biever, CTS editor