Thank you to Daniel Sperling, Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy, and Founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis, who presented Transforming Transportation: Bringing Science to Policy at the Transportation Seminar on Sep. 20, 2024.
Abstract: Transportation is on the path to decarbonization, led by the electrification of cars, trucks and buses. However, numerous questions remain. How much reduction in vehicle use is desired and possible? How might aviation and shipping be decarbonized? How might strategies differ between advanced industrial nations and the Global South? What more do we need to know and which strategies, technologies and policies are most effective and most acceptable?
Bio: Daniel Sperling is the Distinguished Blue Planet Prize Professor of Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy and founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis. He held the transportation seat on the California Air Resources Board from 2007–23 and served as chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies in 2015–16. Among his many honors are induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2022, the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award for University Transportation Education and Research of the Council of University Transportation Centers; the 2018 Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from TRB, its highest research honor; and the 2013 Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation Prize as “a pioneer in opening up new fields of study to create more efficient, low-carbon, and environmentally beneficial transportation systems.” He has served twice as lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sharing 0.3 percent of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; authored or co-authored over 250 technical papers and 13 books; and made one thousand public presentations.
This seminar was co-sponsored by CITRIS and the Banatao Institute(link is external) as part of Charting New Paths, a series of distinguished lectures on transportation technologies at the intersection of aviation, climate, health, and policy research.
