KaraKockelman

Texas Engineer Kara Kockelman
ProfessorDewitt C. Greer Centennial Professorship in Transportation Engineering

Research Areas
Research Interests

Self-driving vehicles; Travel behavior modeling; Transport data analysis; Transport economics and energy policy; Roadway safety; The connection between urban form and transportation; Autonomous, electric and shared vehicle operations

About

Kara Kockelman is a registered professional engineer and holds a Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in civil engineering, a master’s in city planning and a minor in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Kockelman has been a professor of transportation engineering at The University of Texas at Austin for 26 years, and is associate site director of the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Efficient Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation Systems.

She has authored over 230 journal articles (and two books), and her primary research interests include planning for shared and autonomous vehicle systems, the statistical modeling of urban systems, energy and climate issues, the economic impacts of transport policy and crash occurrence and consequences.

Educational Qualifications

Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
M.S., Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
M.C.P., City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, 1996
B.S., Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1991

Select Awards & Honors

  • MIT Mobility Initiative fellow (2025)
  • Walter Isard Award for Distinguished Scholarly Achievement – North American Regional Science Council (2020)
  • James Laurie Prize in Transportation Engineering – American Society of Civil Engineers (2014)
  • Woman of the Year Award – Texas Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (2008)
  • Top 100 Innovators Award – MIT Technology Review (2002)
  • CAREER Award – National Science Foundation (2002)

Select Publications

Google Scholar

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