PB Recognizes Dr. Chowdhury for His Professional Excellence

News: In March 2005, Md. Shoaib Chowdhury has been recognized as a Professional Associate of Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), Inc in the practice area of Transportation/Traffic Engineering. Every year PB recognizes the extraordinary professionals who have obtained exceptional levels of technical and professional achievements. The professional associates of Parsons Brinckerhoff are a very exclusive group involve at the highest level of key professional advice and assignments in technical activities. Currently Transportation/Traffic Engineering practice area of PB includes approximately 15 recognized individuals through the Professional Associate Program.

PB, one of the oldest continuously operating engineering firms with over 119 years in services and long recognized as one of the world's leading transportation engineering firms, is a leader in consulting, engineering, and design-build for all types of infrastructure and facilities, including transportation, power, water, telecommunications, and buildings. With approximately 9,000 employees in 250 offices on six continents, PB has been serving clients in nearly 80 countries around the world. Most recently completed PB managed Paksey Bridge project in Bangladesh is the largest and longest continuous segmental deck bridge in the world today.

Dr. Chowdhury, an internationally renowned scholar for his research contributions, has been advancing the profession through actively participating in various professional societies. He is a member of the Intermodal Committee, a technical committee under ASCE/T&DI and a paper reviewer of ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering. Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 133,000 members of the civil engineering profession worldwide, and is America's oldest national engineering society.

Dr. Chowdhury is also a member of the simulation subcommittee under Traffic Signal Systems Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). In that connection, he has review responsibilities for the TRB paper publications. The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is a division of the National Academies, which include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. The mission of TRB is to promote innovation and progress in transportation through research. In an objective and interdisciplinary setting, the Board facilitates the sharing of information on transportation practice and policy by researchers and practitioners; stimulates research and offers research management services that promote technical excellence; provides expert advice on transportation policy and programs; and disseminates research results broadly and encourages their implementation.

In 1997, The Intelligent Transportation Society of America awarded him Rockwell ITS America scholarship. The Intelligent Transportation Society of America is a not-for-profit organization, established in 1991 to coordinate the development and deployment of ITS in the United States. ITS America also has alliances with ITS organizations in other countries, most notably in Europe and Asia. Mission of ITS America is to improve transportation by promoting research, deployment and operation of intelligent transportation systems through leadership and partnerships with public, private, educational and consumer stakeholders.

In 1998, he was awarded George Kramble Transit Foundation Scholarship. The aim of the Scholarship Fund is to provide aid to students with a genuine interest in careers in transit or closely related areas. Professor George Smerk administers the fund at Indiana University’s Institute for Urban Transportation. Award winners are selected based on academic and research contributions, a statement of career goals in mass transit, and recommendations by their faculty advisors.

In 2000, Dr. Chowdhury was elected to a full member of Sigma Xi. Founded in 1886, the international honor society of science and engineering, Sigma Xi has approximately 70,000 members around the world who were elected to membership based on their research achievements. Nearly 200 of its members have won the Nobel Prize.

As an expert in the area of urban transportation engineering, he has been the investigators of many research and real world projects of various state, federal and local government agencies those deal with freeway operations and capacity improvements, roadway safety improvements, traffic signal systems improvements, schedule improvements for intermodal transit networks, Operations evaluations of light rail transit with priority/preemptions at series of grade intersections operated with vehicular traffic, operations evaluation of exclusive bus lanes, traffic capacity assessment of major bridges and tunnels, studies of traffic impacts resulting from major redevelopment and rezoning, parking studies and need assessments in major Central business district areas. Representative projects that he has recently been involved with and budgets extended from several million dollars to over a billion dollar include Number-7 subway line extension project in the New York city; redevelopments and improvements of complex street systems involving tunnels, expressways, pedestrian and bikeways and closely spaced signalized intersections with heavy pedestrian movements in the vicinity of world Trade Center after 9-11 tragic event; and Long Island Expressway/Grand Central Parkway/Vanwyck expressway interchange improvement project, which is believed to be one of the most complex and critical freeway interchange in the New York city area and also a gateway linking JFK international airport to New York City. Major data required to perform most of these studies include traffic accident information, roadway geometric and control conditions, and existing and forecasted future year traffic volumes. Analytical as well as micro-simulation models are utilized in the decision making process.

As an expert in the field of Transportation Engineering, his biography has been included in the Marquis Who’s Who in Science and Engineering and Who’s who in America. He has published technical papers in many international Journals; and earned his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from BUET in 1991, ME from The City College of New York in 1996 and Ph.D. degree from New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2000. He is the second son of Moqbul Ahmad and Jahanara Begum Chowdhurany.