Megan Ryerson

Professor Megan S. Ryerson is the UPS Foundation Chair of Transportation and Professor of City and Regional Planning and Electrical & Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Ryerson’s research emphasis is in the area of transportation engineering and planning, with a focus on intercity transportation planning and urban transportation safety. Dr. Ryerson has written extensively in the area of air transportation, including environmental impacts, economic development, and multimodal planning. In 2024 Dr. Ryerson was awarded a $6M NASA University Leadership Initiative award to study, develop, and deploy solutions for aviation system resilience.  In the urban transportation safety area, Dr. Ryerson founded the Center for Safe Mobility under which she focuses on the development of development of novel, human-centered transportation safety metrics as well as the evaluation of safety-focused policies. Dr. Ryerson has published over 65 peer-reviewed articles, won numerous awards for her scholarship and leadership, and counseled major airlines, cities, Universities, airports and Port Authorities, and the Federal Aviation Administration. 

Dr. Ryerson served as the first Associate Dean for Research at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design. She founded the Research Support Center which assists faculty in pursuing external funding; during her five years as Associate Dean for Research, awarded grants grew by over 300%. Dr. Ryerson is a committed educator dedicated to the advancement of women in transportation. For these efforts, her mentorship and her accomplishments, Dr. Ryerson was named “Woman of the Year” by the Women's Transportation Seminar-Philadelphia Chapter.