ITS alumni scoop top awards
MBE, CBE and Indian award for alumni achievements and contributions for transport
Tom van Vuren, MBE
In September, alumnus Tom van Vuren was awarded an honorary MBE for services to transport. Tom joined ITS in 1986 as a Research Assistant, working with Dirck Van Vliet on the interaction between signal settings and traffic assignment, which Tom also used for a part-time PhD, completed in 1991. The work used SATURN extensively, and some of the modules in SATURN are direct descendants of that work. Dirck and Tom wrote the book Route Choice and Signal Control based on this research.
Tom has been a steady contributor to the success of the Institute, being appointed as Visiting Professor in 2004, and serving on our External Advisory Board. Some of the other alumni may remember Tom as a supervisor of MSc dissertations, and more recently as a mentor of Integrated Transport Projects. Tom is a member of DfT’s Joint Analysis Development Panel, an editor of the journal Transportation, director of policy at the Transport Planning Society and he chairs the annual Modelling World conference.
Rachel Skinner, 'Outstanding Contribution to Transport'
Rachel Skinner studied a Masters degree (Transportation Planning & Engineering) at ITS and graduated in 2001. She is now the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Transport award at the National Transport Awards (NTA). Rachel has also been a leader in driving forward the decarbonisation agenda, choosing net zero carbon as her theme when she was elected as the youngest ever, and second female, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. At the awards, President and NTA judge Jo Field honoured Rachel’s work: “As a founding Board Member and early President of Women in Transport, and now a Patron of the organisation, Rachel’s commitment to improving the sector’s diversity has been long-standing. This resulted in her being asked by Government to lead the Transport Employment and Skills Taskforce to improve diversity and promote transport careers.”
Dr Nalin Shinghal, ‘Distinguished Alumni award’
Dr Nalin Shinghal studied a PhD at ITS in 1999. His thesis was titled 'An application of stated preference methods to the study of intermodal freight transport services in India'. He recently received the 'Distinguished Alumni Award 2023' award at the 54th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology, in New Delhi. The award was conferred in recognition of Dr Shinghal’s 36 years of service spanning various assignments in the private, public and government sectors. He has also worked with the Long Range Decision Support group of the Ministry of Railways and with over 16 years of board/ CEO level experience, Dr. Shinghal is recognised as a turnaround expert.
Photo by Guillermo Latorre on Unsplash
