Ram M. Pendyala is a Professor of Transportation Systems in the Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering program of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of six schools of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. In January 2020, he began serving as the Director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, after having served as the Interim Director between July 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019. He is also a Senior Sustainability Scientist, closely affiliated with the Global Institute of Sustainability, and a Barrett Honors Faculty affiliated with Barrett, The Honors College. Dr. Pendyala serves as the Director of the Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET), a US Department of Transportation Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC). In recognition of his outstanding contributions to transportation research and education, he was selected as the 2017 recipient of the S.S. Steinberg Award of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) Research and Education Division.
Dr. Pendyala served on the faculty at Arizona State University during 2006-2014 and rejoined the institution effective Fall 2016. For a two year period between 2014 and 2016, Dr. Pendyala served as the Frederick R. Dickerson Chair Professor of Transportation Systems in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Pendyala teaches courses and conducts research in multimodal transportation systems planning, activity-based travel behavior modeling, time use and activity pattern analysis, freight and passenger travel demand forecasting, travel survey methods, microsimulation approaches, and the application of advanced econometric and statistical methods for transportation policy analysis. His expertise lies in the study of sustainable mobility management strategies, analysis of public transportation systems including bus and rail technologies, and modeling the land use, transportation, energy, and air quality impacts of a wide range of transportation policies and technology solutions including pricing-based strategies. Dr. Pendyala has conducted more than $10 million in sponsored research for a variety of federal, state, and local government agencies in these and other related topic areas.
Prior to joining ASU in Fall 2006, Dr. Pendyala served for 12 years as a transportation faculty member and 6 years as graduate programs coordinator at the University of South Florida Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Tampa, Florida. He also served as a visiting professor in Vienna, Austria and is regularly invited by universities, research institutes, and public agencies around the world to give seminars, deliver keynote speeches, and write resource papers related to his areas of expertise. He has served as an expert advisor and consultant to the World Bank on the evaluation of infrastructure improvements aimed at enhancing bus rapid transit (BRT) patronage. Over the past decade, Dr. Pendyala has been collaborating with international groups of researchers to analyze passenger and freight activity-travel behavior characteristics and develop state-of-the-art integrated microsimulation-based model systems of land use, activity-travel demand, spatial behavior, and network dynamics. Dr. Pendyala has advised more than 55 graduate students who are now employed in leading positions at government agencies, private consulting firms, and academic institutions.
Dr. Pendyala’s research has primarily focused on the development and implementation of new methods for modeling, understanding, and forecasting travel demand. Dr. Pendyala is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the development of new activity-based microsimulation models of travel behavior that constitute the next generation of tools that transportation planners will use to forecast travel demand on all modes of transportation. Dr. Pendyala has published extensively and is widely cited for his work in these areas of research. Dr. Pendyala is also involved in the development of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tools for multimodal travel forecasting and has spearheaded the development of new transit planning software for route and service planning. More recently, he has been studying the sustainability of alternative land use development patterns and built environments. His work on the development of sustainable and resilient built environments includes the organization of an international symposium series on advances in transport system and infrastructure sustainability, in partnership with a global consortium of universities and government agencies. He is also conducting extensive research at the nexus of transportation and public health, analyzing the physical activity and health/obesity outcomes associated with alternative land use - transport development patterns, particularly among children. Dr. Pendyala led a $1 million Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) project for the Federal Highway Administration of the US Department of Transportation to develop new methods for modeling land use, travel demand, and multimodal transport networks in integrated dynamic microsimulation frameworks. His contributions to the field have been recognized with the 2011 and 2013 Transportation Research Board Pyke Johnson Award for the Best Paper in the Planning and Environment subject area.
Dr. Pendyala has published over 150 articles in international journals such as Transportation, Transportation Research, Transport Policy, Journal of Transportation and Statistics, Environment and Planning, Transportation Letters, and Journal of the Transportation Research Board and several reputed books in the field. He served as an Associate Editor for Transportation Research Part D from 2015 through 2018. Dr. Pendyala also served on the editorial board of Transportation for 15 years and as a North America editor for Transport Reviews for 12 years. He is currently on the editorial boards of a number of prestigious journals, including the International Journal of Choice Modeling, IATSS Research, Accident Analysis and Prevention, and Transportation Letters. He served as the Chair of the Planning and Environment Group of the Transportation Research Board, a unit of the National Research Council of the National Academies, and previously served as the Chair of the Travel Analysis Methods Section (ADB00) and the Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values (ADB10). He has served as Guest Editor of three Special Issues of Transportation dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art in modeling and analyzing activity-travel behavior. Dr. Pendyala has served on several expert review panels for the US Department of Transportation, Transportation Research Board, and National Science Foundation; and for local government agencies such as the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Portland Metro, Maricopa Association of Governments, and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). He is also the past Chair and former Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR). Dr. Pendyala is a member of several technical committees of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS), and Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He is also a member of the World Society on Transport and Land Use Research (WSTLUR) and a member of the Patrons of the Transportation Research Group of India (TRG).
Dr. Pendyala has his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering with a specialization in transportation systems from the University of California at Davis. He obtained his Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) in Chennai, India.
Dr. Pendyala served on the faculty at Arizona State University during 2006-2014 and rejoined the institution effective Fall 2016. For a two year period between 2014 and 2016, Dr. Pendyala served as the Frederick R. Dickerson Chair Professor of Transportation Systems in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Pendyala teaches courses and conducts research in multimodal transportation systems planning, activity-based travel behavior modeling, time use and activity pattern analysis, freight and passenger travel demand forecasting, travel survey methods, microsimulation approaches, and the application of advanced econometric and statistical methods for transportation policy analysis. His expertise lies in the study of sustainable mobility management strategies, analysis of public transportation systems including bus and rail technologies, and modeling the land use, transportation, energy, and air quality impacts of a wide range of transportation policies and technology solutions including pricing-based strategies. Dr. Pendyala has conducted more than $10 million in sponsored research for a variety of federal, state, and local government agencies in these and other related topic areas.
Prior to joining ASU in Fall 2006, Dr. Pendyala served for 12 years as a transportation faculty member and 6 years as graduate programs coordinator at the University of South Florida Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Tampa, Florida. He also served as a visiting professor in Vienna, Austria and is regularly invited by universities, research institutes, and public agencies around the world to give seminars, deliver keynote speeches, and write resource papers related to his areas of expertise. He has served as an expert advisor and consultant to the World Bank on the evaluation of infrastructure improvements aimed at enhancing bus rapid transit (BRT) patronage. Over the past decade, Dr. Pendyala has been collaborating with international groups of researchers to analyze passenger and freight activity-travel behavior characteristics and develop state-of-the-art integrated microsimulation-based model systems of land use, activity-travel demand, spatial behavior, and network dynamics. Dr. Pendyala has advised more than 55 graduate students who are now employed in leading positions at government agencies, private consulting firms, and academic institutions.
Dr. Pendyala’s research has primarily focused on the development and implementation of new methods for modeling, understanding, and forecasting travel demand. Dr. Pendyala is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the development of new activity-based microsimulation models of travel behavior that constitute the next generation of tools that transportation planners will use to forecast travel demand on all modes of transportation. Dr. Pendyala has published extensively and is widely cited for his work in these areas of research. Dr. Pendyala is also involved in the development of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tools for multimodal travel forecasting and has spearheaded the development of new transit planning software for route and service planning. More recently, he has been studying the sustainability of alternative land use development patterns and built environments. His work on the development of sustainable and resilient built environments includes the organization of an international symposium series on advances in transport system and infrastructure sustainability, in partnership with a global consortium of universities and government agencies. He is also conducting extensive research at the nexus of transportation and public health, analyzing the physical activity and health/obesity outcomes associated with alternative land use - transport development patterns, particularly among children. Dr. Pendyala led a $1 million Exploratory Advanced Research (EAR) project for the Federal Highway Administration of the US Department of Transportation to develop new methods for modeling land use, travel demand, and multimodal transport networks in integrated dynamic microsimulation frameworks. His contributions to the field have been recognized with the 2011 and 2013 Transportation Research Board Pyke Johnson Award for the Best Paper in the Planning and Environment subject area.
Dr. Pendyala has published over 150 articles in international journals such as Transportation, Transportation Research, Transport Policy, Journal of Transportation and Statistics, Environment and Planning, Transportation Letters, and Journal of the Transportation Research Board and several reputed books in the field. He served as an Associate Editor for Transportation Research Part D from 2015 through 2018. Dr. Pendyala also served on the editorial board of Transportation for 15 years and as a North America editor for Transport Reviews for 12 years. He is currently on the editorial boards of a number of prestigious journals, including the International Journal of Choice Modeling, IATSS Research, Accident Analysis and Prevention, and Transportation Letters. He served as the Chair of the Planning and Environment Group of the Transportation Research Board, a unit of the National Research Council of the National Academies, and previously served as the Chair of the Travel Analysis Methods Section (ADB00) and the Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values (ADB10). He has served as Guest Editor of three Special Issues of Transportation dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art in modeling and analyzing activity-travel behavior. Dr. Pendyala has served on several expert review panels for the US Department of Transportation, Transportation Research Board, and National Science Foundation; and for local government agencies such as the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Portland Metro, Maricopa Association of Governments, and Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP). He is also the past Chair and former Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR). Dr. Pendyala is a member of several technical committees of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS), and Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He is also a member of the World Society on Transport and Land Use Research (WSTLUR) and a member of the Patrons of the Transportation Research Group of India (TRG).
Dr. Pendyala has his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering with a specialization in transportation systems from the University of California at Davis. He obtained his Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) in Chennai, India.
