TSS Dissertation Abstracts—Abstracts for the 1998 Transportation Science Section Dissertation Prize Competition

The TSS Dissertation Prize Competition is the oldest and most prestigious competition for doctoral dissertations in the transportation science area. On behalf of the TSS dissertation prize committee, I am pleased to provide this report on the 1998 competition. Eligible doctoral dissertations were those completed and submitted between June 1, 1997 and May 31, 1998 in the area of transportation science. To be considered, a dissertation had to be nominated by the thesis supervisor. This year, eight dissertations were submitted for consideration by the judging committee, which was chaired by Professor Siamak A. Ardekani, The University of Texas at Arlington, and consisted of: (1) Professor Jay Jayakrishnan, University of California at Irvine; (2) Professor Srinivas Peeta, Purdue University; (3) Professor Paolo Toth, University of Bologna-Italy; (4) Professor Garrett J. van Ryzin, Columbia University I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the judges for the time and effort they devoted to the difficult task of judging these entries. The quality of all the theses submitted was excellent and the choices were difficult. The awards were announced at the Fall meeting of INFORMS in Seattle. The First Prize winner was Dr. Gianpaolo Ghiani of The Universita degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II.” An honorable mention was awarded to Dr. Robert L. Hoffman of the University of Maryland at College Park. It is important to remember that the submissions to the TSS Dissertation competition are already distinguished by the fact that they have been nominated for the award. Each makes a unique and valuable contribution to transportation science, and allentrants and their advisors deserve warmest congratulations.