Luis Pilo Willumsen

After 17 years teaching at Leeds and UCL, and 20 years as Director of Steer Davies Gleave (a transport consultancy) I am now an Independent Consultant and a Director of Kineo Mobility Analytics, a company using an anonymised mobile phone and smart card data to provide mobility information to decision makers. I have thoroughly enjoyed my career and the challenges and opportunities it has provided. 

My PhD Thesis was important in establishing my credentials as a contributor to the state of the art in Transport Demand Modelling and forecasting. My PhD was completed as a part-time course whilst I was working as a Research Assistant at ITS. 

My advice to students interested in this course and a career in transport is that the ITS courses are an excellent basis to develop a successful career in Transport and Mobility services. 

The highlight of my career so far has been leading the design of the Transmilenio Bus Rapid Transit system in 1999-2000. 

My advice I would give to international students who are seeking work in the transport sector would be to seek work in places where hard work and skills are truly valued above personal contacts and political views. Try to instil these values in countries that do not support them.

Luis also won the Master of Modelling Lifetime Achievement Award, June 2017. This was sponsored by PTV and presented at the Modelling World conference in London this month. It is a lifetime achievement award that is open to all modellers who are working, or who have worked, in the UK. It is awarded to an individual who has: 

• excelled in driving change
• challenged thinking
• one the most for 'moving modelling on' during their career

This award was peer-reviewed and judged by the Modelling World Steering Group, key partners and PTV. It is a well-deserved recognition of his contribution to the transport modelling community.