TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council— a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The National Research Council is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. TRB’s varied activities annually engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels, and task forces. The program is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

The Program Officer is responsible for assisting with one or more of the organization’s projects with minimal oversight by Director or Senior Program Officer. Assembles committees and provides staff assistance to committees as they conduct their work. Responsible for ensuring projects stay on schedule and within budget.

Incumbent applies in-depth professional level knowledge to independently solve a full range of complex problems. The job’s primary focus is supporting studies or convening activities. The work is primarily intellectual or analytical in character, requiring advanced knowledge. Assignments are broadly defined and require judgment and creativity to complete. Incumbent is often responsible for oversight or management of other staff. Reports to Senior Program Officer or Director.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:

1. Manages projects of minimal or moderate complexity. In collaboration with supervisor, manages budget, supervises staff, and ensures program or project meets objectives.

2. Where applicable and with director/senior program officer oversight, recruits potential committee nominees and assembles appointment packages. Communicates and coordinates with the committee chair and members. Identifies and gathers research materials for the committee. Facilitates the flow of information among committee/panel members, consultants, staff, and other applicable parties

3. Conducts large and small workshops and/or meetings. Develops agendas, invites presenters and participants, oversees meeting logistics and multimedia presentations, and prepares written summaries.

4. Prepares background papers and technical summaries. Develops written products (e.g., reports, proceedings, white papers). Drafts and edits materials for publication. Synthesizes and edits research findings and technical data and determines the relevance of data for purposes of activity.

5. Supports committee members, forum members, workshop participants, etc. in all aspects of work. Assistance is provided in preparing the draft report, including writing sections of report based on committee input and review and editing the report for format, consistency, and grammar. Facilitates the response to review, responds to comments and concerns of editors, and prepares the final manuscript for publication.

6. Supports dissemination activities related to assigned programs or projects. Creates and maintains materials for web sites social media channels and other outreach to provide interest groups with information generated from and for activities.

7. Oversees project budget and schedule and authorizes expenditures. As required, collaborates with financial staff to ensure compliance.

8. Collaborates with experts and sponsors from federal, state, and local government agencies, foundations, schools, and other organizations. Represents the unit and committee within and outside the National Academies.

9. With Director or Senior Program Officer oversight, conducts background research on topics for new studies, programs, or activities.

For more information, visit http://chk.tbe.taleo.net/chk02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=NAS&cws=1&rid=8047 and search for Job Number 150070-5.

Federal Highway Administration – Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center

Upcoming Position: Research Transportation Specialist

Image courtesy. www.dot.gov

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is looking for a Research Transportation Specialist (GS-12/13) to lead state-of the-art transportation operations research projects at the nationally recognized Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia.  This position is for a junior or mid-level professional in the Transportation Operations Applications Team in the Office of Operations Research and Development (R&D).  The incumbent is experienced in research related to one or more of the following areas:

(a) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS),
(b) traffic adaptive control systems,
(c) freeway management systems,
(d) wireless communications systems, and/or
(e) cooperative vehicle-highway systems to help achieve the FHWA’s system performance strategic goal.

This position provides an exciting opportunity to work in a collaborative environment at the Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory and with nationally recognized experts on meaningful cutting edge research projects such as the connected vehicle initiative and vehicle automation, as well as nearer-term applied problems in transportation operations.  The incumbent will be expected to guide in-house research, manage extramural contracts, and encourage partnerships for on-site research at our Cooperative Vehicle-Highway Testbed, as well as offsite field research on public or private roads and/or test tracks. The ideal candidate will preferably have an advanced degree in an engineering or scientific field, with course work related to one or more aspects of ITS, traffic engineering, or telecommunications.  He/she should have 5 or more years of relevant work experience.  Strong leadership, organization and people skills are a must.

FHWA expects to announce the position soon.  The office will not be accepting resumes, please refer to the USA Jobs web site periodically for the specific vacancy announcement:  https://www.usajobs.gov/

Also see: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/tfhrc/labs/operations/

Contact:  Ben McKeever, 202-493-3270 or ben.mckeever@dot.gov

Cross-posted on YPTVoice, the blog for Young Professional in Transportation (YPT)

TRB Annual Meeting Tips from Ananda Palanisamy on Vimeo.

YPT Voice is pleased to present the sixth in a 10-week series of blog posts to introduce YPTers to the TRB Annual Meeting (#TRBAM) and to help them prepare for the annual conference in January 2012.  A complete summary of YPT-recommended TRBAM events will be available before and during the conference.

Dear YPT-ers,

When I was approached by YPT to share some tips for fellow-YPT-ers in terms of maximizing their benefit while attending the upcoming TRB, I chose to take a different route and opt for a video blog post rather than the the usual text-laden post. Thanks to my wife Chithra Jeyaram (@RealTalkies), a skilled film-maker from Univ. of Texas, I managed to get a quick video post done. Let us know what you think.

Oh, please remember this video only offers some random thoughts and by no means should be considered as a comprehensive tool when you are preparing to attend the TRB Annual Meeting. One item left out in this above video is the possibility of running into poor internet connectivity. Though the lobby at conference hotels offer free internet, it is often slow and not secure. The situation gets even worse when you are holed up in many of the conference rooms during the event. So my advice is to you, if possible, is to bring an aircard that can help you connect to the internet when you are attending the event.

Also, one more item I forgot to mention in the above video is the busy lunch/dinner times in the nearby eateries around the conference hotels, esp. around Marriott and Omni Shoreham. Yes! Trust me it gets very busy and sometimes meetings attendees have to skip lunch in order to make it to the next session on time. So, do not hesitate to hop on the metro Redline and get to the adjacent stops – Cleveland Park & Dupont Circle are located on either side of the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro station. There are plenty of eateries around Dupont Circle and Cleveland Park stations and can help save you considerable amount of time, which you otherwise would have spent waiting in line at the eateries around Woodley Park station.

Finally, do check out the TRB Facebook page and follow the daily updates shared on the feed wall. If you find anything interesting or worth sharing, please do not hesitate to share with fellow attendees.

Looking forward to meeting you all at the YPT Reception.

Previous posts in the #TRBAM  2012 series:

• TRB Annual Meeting Session Spotlight – Choose Your Acronym: Credentials for Transportation Professionals
• TRB Annual Meeting Session Spotlight: Young Members Council Meeting
• My First TRB Annual Meeting: Some Tips for Newbs
• Looking Back: TRBAM 2011
• TRB Annual Meeting: What you need to know

Please see below for information about a funding opportunity from the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) for research on a variety of transportation topics, including transportation finance. As the director of MTI’s National Transportation Finance Center, Asha Agrawal will be assisting researchers with questions about submitting finance-related proposals. So if you have questions, please feel free to get in touch with Asha at asha.weinstein.agrawal@sjsu.edu.

FYI, I have not included the attachments, since they don’t go through well on email groups like this one, but all the forms are available at http://www.transweb.sjsu.edu/MTIportal/research/RFPForms.html

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Dear Colleagues,

MTI is pleased to announce the release of the 2011-2012 Request for Proposals (RFP). Attached you will find the RFP, the proposal form, and the budget template. These forms may also be downloaded from the MTI web page:http://www.transweb.sjsu.edu/MTIportal/research/RFPForms.html.

As you may know, MTI conducts an open, broad-based process for soliciting and selecting policy research projects. High-quality proposals that best match the results of the needs assessment and the objectives and research emphasis areas of the institute will be selected for funding. MTI supports research projects staffed entirely by San José State University (SJSU) faculty or by SJSU faculty collaborating with researchers from outside the university.

We invite you to submit a proposal in response to this request!  All proposals are due on MONDAY, MAY 16 2011 at 5:00 p.m. PDT.