Congratulations to Benjamín Colucci-Ríos, Ph.D., director of the Puerto Rico LTAP Transportation Technology Transportation Center and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez Outstanding Civil Engineering Professor, on being selected as the 2021 ASCE Wilbur S. Smith Award recipient for his unending leadership and dedication to action for the improvement of road safety in Puerto Rico and around the world.
The Wilbur S. Smith Award, instituted by the Highway Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 1984, recognizes outstanding professional accomplishments in the field of highway engineering. This is the first time in ASCE Wilbur S. Smith Award history that a Puerto Rican, U.S. citizen, and Ibero-American civil engineer and transportation professional has received this outstanding distinction.
“Wilbur S. Smith and its consulting firm was a pioneer in the first transportation studies in Puerto Rico in the early 1960s,” wrote Colucci-Rios to NICR colleagues. “It has been my inspiration for many years, [this is] a dream come true! It has certainly motivated me to continue with my passion and vocation in transportation education, research, workfare development, and technology transfer to present and future generations!”
The award will be given during ASCE’s Virtual International Conference on Transportation & Development (ICTD 2021), organized by the Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) and scheduled for June 2021.
Colucci-Ríos, the principal investigator of the USF-UPRM research project Corridor-Wide Surveillance Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems, was also awarded the International Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award for his outstanding contribution to the transportation profession by relating academic studies to the actual practice of transportation.
Congratulations again to our friend and NICR partner!
