Rural matters: Roads that work for people should work for the environment, too.
Staff
Steve Albert, Director
406-994-6114
Steve Albert is the director of the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. With more than 25 years of experience, he has spearheaded innovative solutions from metropolitan centers to rural settings. With his management of the Houston transportation system and his pioneering rural research, Mr. Albert has a comprehensive perspective of America’s varied transportation needs.
In particular, Mr. Albert is a national leader on intelligent transportation systems (ITS). He has been involved in and guided ITS research and development projects in more than 35 states. Mr. Albert has delivered more than 100 professional presentations on relevant subjects, including twice addressing the U.S. Senate on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ITS program. In 2007, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters selected him to serve on the ITS Advisory Committee.
Mr. Albert has worked for PB Farradyne, in Washington D.C., Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) in Houston, and the Texas Transportation Institute of Texas A&M University System in Houston.
Jerry Stephens
Research Director
Program Manager, Logistics and Freight Management
Program Manager, Transportation Planning and Economics
406-994-6113
Dr. Jerry Stephens is WTI’s research director as well as the program manager for the Logistics and Freight Management and Transportation Planning and Economics programs. His expertise is in transportation issues affecting Montana, where he has focused his research for 15 years. His work frequently involves traditional analyses of the engineering performance of the transportation infrastructure with broader system-wide operational and economic considerations, such as vehicle weight enforcement, freight logistics, system finance and system productivity. For example, Dr. Stephens has worked on assessing the equity of Montana’s motor vehicle fees, establishing a new gross vehicle weight-based fee structure for commercial vehicles, and studying infrastructure and economic impacts of possible changes in the vehicle size and weight statutes in the state. He has worked closely with personnel from a variety of divisions within the Montana Department of Transportation and he is active at the national level on those issues.
Since 1989, Dr. Stephens has also served as a structural engineering professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Montana State University. He has been honored several times both as the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Professor of the Year and as the Alumni/Chamber of Commerce’s winner of the Award of Excellence.
Andy Scott – Editor I 406-994-6019
Safety and Operations
Ahmed Al-Kaisy
Program Manager, Safety and Operations
406-994-6116
Dr. Ahmed Al-Kaisy is the program manager for Safety and Operations research at WTI. With an extensive research background in traffic flow, control and in operations and safety, Dr. Al-Kaisy is a widely published expert on the subject of freeway construction operations. At WTI, his research has focused on work zone safety and rural highway traffic operations. He has more than 30 years of experience, including both public and private sector positions as a contractor, project engineer and highway design engineer.
Dr. Al-Kaisy also is a faculty member for transportation in Montana State University’s College of Engineering. He has instructed students on transportation engineering matters including traffic operations and management, traffic safety, signal optimization and control, highway design, airport engineering and transportation systems.
Pat McGowen – Assistant Professor 406-994-6529
Laura Stanley – Assistant Professor 406-994-1399
David Veneziano – Research Scientist 406-994-6320
Nic Ward - Professor 406-994-5942
Zhirui (Jared) Ye – Research Scientist 406-994-7909
Winter Maintenance and Effects
Xianming Shi
Program Manager, Winter Maintenance and Effects
406-994-6486
Dr. Xianming Shi has unique expertise and experience with transportation research that stems from his multi-disciplinary background and skills in corrosion and material sciences, chemistry, industrial engineering, environmental science and civil engineering. Dr. Shi also is an associate research professor with the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University and is a specially invited professor for the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tianjin University in China. He is a member of four Transportation Research Board committees under the U.S. National Academies.
At WTI, Dr. Shi has served as the principal investigator on varied research projects, funded by sponsors that include the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Airport Cooperative Research Program, Pacific Northwest Snowfighters Association, Clear Roads Pooled Fund, MDSS Pooled Fund, Aurora Consortium and numerous state departments of transportation. Dr. Shi has been widely published and holds degrees in chemistry, applied chemistry with a focus on corrosion electrochemistry, industrial management engineering, and corrosion and protection.
Laura Fay – Research Scientist 406-994-6418
Yajun Liu – Research Scientist 406-994-6074
Tuan Anh Nguyen – Research Scientist 406-994-6074
Marijean Peterson – Chemist 406-994-7135
Zhengxian Yang – Research Scientist 406-994-6074
Road Ecology
Rob Ament
Program Manager, Road Ecology
406-994-6423
Rob Ament is the program manager for Road Ecology research at WTI. He has played an instrumental role in expanding the program to include a range of nationally significant research, education, outreach and technology transfer activities. Mr. Ament manages more than 20 road ecology research projects throughout North America and serves on five national and international committees and boards.
Mr. Ament has more than 25 years of experience in plant ecology, natural resource management, environmental policy and organization development. Previously, he served as an ecologist and natural resource manager at federal land management agencies across the western United States. Immediately before joining WTI, he devoted 12 years to a non-profit conservation organization where he was an expert on environmental policy regarding forests, water and wildlife. Promoted to executive director of the group, he developed a regionally significant wildlife-highways program.
James Begley – Research Associate 509-933-1340
Matt Blank – Research Scientist 406-994-7120
Tony Clevenger – Senior Research Scientist 403-609-2127
Adam Ford – Research Associate 403-760-5004
Marcel Huijser – Research Scientist II 406-543-2377
Angie Kociolek – Research Scientist 406-994-6308
Robert Long – Research Scientist 509-933-1340
Paula Mackay – Research Associate 509-933-1340
Infrastructure Maintenance and Materials
Eli Cuelho
Program Manager, Infrastructure Maintenance and Materials
406-994-7886
Eli Cuelho is WTI’s Infrastructure Maintenance and Materials program manager. He leads innovative research projects at the Materials Laboratory on the Montana State University campus, which examines the properties of new materials for the construction and reinforcement of pavements. He also facilitates research at Transcend, a cold regions transportation testbed in Lewistown, Montana. Mr. Cuelho is a registered professional engineer with a master’s degree in civil engineering.
Mr. Cuelho has more than 12 years of experience related to geotechnical engineering, geosynthetic design, pavement design and analysis, intelligent transportation systems technology evaluation and deployment, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses, and remote sensing and data acquisition equipment. He has expertise in the testing and use of geosynthetic materials in roadway design and construction. Mr. Cuelho is the chair of an American Society for Testing and Materials task group dedicated to developing new test procedures for geosynthetics used as pavement and subgrade reinforcement. He is also a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Dynamics and Field Testing of Bridges committee and its Geosynthetics committee.
Michelle Akin – Research Associate 406-994-6356
Doug Cross – Research Associate 406-994-7198
Jason Harwood – Research Associate 406-994-7176
Systems Engineering Development and Integration
Doug Galarus
Program Manager, Systems Engineering Development and Integration
406-994-5268
Doug Galarus is the program manager for the Systems Engineering, Development and Integration Program at WTI. He leads research projects that improve or develop usable information technology and communication systems that meet the needs of the user. He also manages the Systems Engineering Development and Integration Laboratory, which develops and tests hardware and software.
Mr. Galarus has nearly 20 years experience in information technology development, testing, implementation and management. He has extensive experience as the project lead for mobile data communications systems, database-driven web sites, Web site design, desktop applications, kiosk development, PDA and Tablet PC – based development, and interactive CD-ROMs. At WTI, he has applied his technical expertise to the development of specific applications for transportation safety, including improved tools for road weather management and road ecology. Mr. Galarus holds master’s degrees in computer science and mathematics education and a bachelor's degree in mathematics with an emphasis in operations research.
Larry Hayden – Research Associate 406-994-6794
Bill Jameson – Senior Research Scientist 406-994-7415
Leann Koon – Research Associate 406-994-7643
Suzy Lassacher – Research Associate II 406-994-6010
Dan Richter – Research Associate 406-994-6773
Shaowei Wang – Research Engineer 406-994-5923
Mobility and Public Transportation
David Kack
Program Manager, Mobility and Public Transportation
406-994-7526
David Kack is the Mobility and Public Transportation program manager at WTI. He leads research to develop creative solutions to improve mobility and expand transportation options in rural areas. Mr. Kack has focused on projects to improve mobility within Montana and increase coordination between various agencies and organizations. He was part of the team that created the Montana Coordinated Transportation Handbook© and then implemented its transportation coordination principles in the Real Choices Systems Change Grant project. He also played a leading role in launching two public transportation systems in Montana -- Streamline in the greater Bozeman area and Skyline in Big Sky.
Mr. Kack holds a master’s degree in business administration. While with WTI, he has conducted research on behalf of the National Park Service, including projects related to transportation management, traveler information systems and public transportation. He also served on the team that developed the Transportation Toolkit for federal land managers.
Jaydeep Chaudhari – AICP, Research Scientist 406-994-2322
Rebecca Gleason – Research Engineer 406-994-6541
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