The Policy@Tech Speaker Series presents Mike Meyer (Civil Engineering): "Confessions of an Engineer Turned Policy Maker: How I Survived Five Years of Massachusetts Politics and Returned Safely to Academia."

Professor Meyer will speak on his experience as Director of Transportation Planning and Development for the State of Massachusetts, where as a young professor, he was a political appointee close to the top of a $2 billion organization, and found himself in the middle of a public controversy over Boston’s Southeast expressway. “An engineer who can speak in public becomes a hot commodity,” he says. The talk will indicate why.

This seminar is co-sponsored with the School of Civil Engineering.

Bio:

Dr. Michael D. Meyer is the Frederick R. Dickerson Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of the Georgia Transportation Institute.   Dr. Meyer has written over 200 technical articles and has authored or co-authored numerous texts on transportation systems engineering, planning and policy.  He is an active member of numerous professional organizations, and has chaired over 60 professional committees relating to climate change, sustainability, transportation safety, planning, public transportation, environmental impact analysis, transportation policy, transportation education, and intermodal transportation.  

Dr. Meyer is the recipient of numerous awards and was appointed Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Transportation Research Board in 2006.

From 1983 to 1988, Dr. Meyer was Director of Transportation Planning and Development for Massachusetts.  His seminar will examine his experience in this position, lessons learned about government service and steps that can be taken to be more effective in a public policy leadership position.

Dr. Meyer has a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, an M.S. degree in Civil Engineering fromNorthwesternUniversityand a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from M.I.T.  He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Georgia.