UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Vikash Gayah, professor of civil engineering at Penn State, has been named interim director of the Penn State Larson Transportation Institute (LTI), effective Aug. 1. LTI is a multidisciplinary transportation research center housed within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at Penn State. LTI, founded in 1968, brings together faculty and students from across the University in partnership with public and private stakeholders to address critical transportation-related problems. 

As the interim director, Gayah said he will work to strengthen and create new research collaborations and opportunities within LTI, growing LTI’s research profile to tackle emerging issues in transportation related to infrastructure resiliency, climate change, sustainability, equity and safety.

“The scope and breadth of research being performed at LTI has increased consistently over the last three years,” said Gayah, who joined Penn State in 2012. “This is a testament to the fantastic staff and researchers that are the heart of the institute. My main goal is to continue this trend and ensure LTI remains a leading institute for transportation-related research in the U.S.”

Gayah’s research interests include urban mobility; traffic operations and control; transportation network modeling; traffic flow theory; traffic safety modeling and management; safety data analysis; and multimodal transportation operations.