Graduate Student Awards

Linna Zhang is the winner of the 2005 Philip E. Rollhaus Jr. Essay Competition. The competition offers cash prizes to both student writers and their sponsoring professors for papers treating the subject of roadway safety.

Linna’s essay How Technologies Will Bring Us Safer and Smarter Railroad Crossings gives answers to the 2005 competition topic question "What devices need to be developed and introduced to protect motorists and pedestrians at railroad crossings and railroad stations?"

In recognition of her effort, Zhang was presented a check for $3000 and her sponsoring professor, Karen Schurr, also received $1000. "Linna’s essay was outstanding and a unanimous choice by the judges for first place," said Mike Dreznes, Vice President of Quixote. Her essay was published in the magazine World Highways.

Justice Appiah is the 2004 recipient of the Council of University Transportation Centers' Charley V. Wootan Award for Outstanding MS Thesis in Transportation Policy and Planning.

The award was presented January 8 during the association's annual awards banquet in Washington, DC. This broadly competed national award is given annually by the CUTC for the top MS thesis in Transportation Policy and Planning. Justice’s submission is titled "An Examination of Factors Affecting High Occupancy/Toll Lane Demand.” The work was sponsored by the Texas Transportation Institute and the Texas A&M University System under the supervision of Dr. Mark Burris, Dr. Laurence Rilett and Dr. Ming Zhang.

Justice is currently conducting research in intelligent transportation systems and micro simulation modeling under the supervision of Dr. Laurence Rilett. He earned a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana in 2001, and an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the Texas A&M University in 2004.