A Georgia Tech graduate student, Brian Lewis, has been named as one of seven national Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellows for 2002. This prestigious award, sponsored by the National Highway Institute, is a merit-based award given to encourage the increase of knowledge in the field of transportation in the United States. Lewis is a pre-doctoral candidate in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

The three-year fellowship covers Georgia Tech tuition and fees, a monthly stipend, and travel to the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C.--approximately $100,000. Lewis' research is based on understanding the tradeoffs between security practices and efficiency within intermodal transportation systems. It is a particularly timely topic, as the U.S. government continues to issue mandates on the security protocol for American roadways, airports, rail yards, and ports. His work focuses on seaports, and the reactive side of those mandates--how do you respond? How do you implement new security practices while maintaining a high level of efficiency and reliability?" Lewis says.

Lewis' professors have high praise for his efforts, especially Dr. Chelsea (Chip) White, his co-advisor and director of The Trucking Industry Program. Lewis followed Dr. White from the University of Michigan to Georgia Tech earlier this year, after completing his master's in industrial and operations engineering at Michigan in December 2001. Lewis also holds a bachelor's in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California, Berkeley.

"Brian is an outstanding doctoral student with a terrific academic record," says Dr. White, who described Lewis as "a high achiever," Dr. Alan Elera, his other co-advisor and a faculty member in ISyE, received the same fellowship from 1997-2000 while he was a Ph.D. student at UC-Berkeley. It was he who urged Lewis to apply. " The Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellowship program intends to fund truly outstanding students with significant potential to be lifelong leaders in the field of transportation research and education," says Elera. " Brian possesses the analytical research aptitude, the communications skills, and the motivation to become such a leader, and is most deserving of the award," he continued.

The School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech has ranked first among the nation's industrial engineering programs for more than a decade. It is part of Georgia Tech's College of Engineering, one of the country's finest engineering schools. For more information on the School, the College, and their programs, see the Georgia Tech website.

To learn about some of the research Brian participates in, visit the Security and Efficiency in Transportation Group (SETRA) website.