It has been announced that US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will appear at the 103rd TRB Annual Meeting as part of the Chair’s Plenary Session on Wednesday, January 10.
Secretary Buttigieg will participate in a workshop entitled New Materials for Infrastructure: Reinventing the Roadway, Runway, and Railway. The Chair’s Plenary Session will also include a ‘fireside chat’ on mental wellness for transportation construction and other workers, hosted by Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, chair of TRB’s Executive Committee.
The TRB (Transportation Research Board) event, attended by thousands of leaders, policymakers, administrators, and researchers from government, industry, and academia, runs January 7-11 in Washington DC and has a program covering all transportation modes with hundreds of sessions and workshops.
A workshop on January 7 focused on designing the transportation agency of the future will feature Victoria Sheehan, executive director of TRB, Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, and others.
On January 8, US Deputy Secretary of Transportation Polly Trottenberg will lead a session on achieving Vision Zero ― the goal of a safe roadway system for users of all modes, with zero deaths due to transportation.
Another session on the national blueprint for transportation decarbonization will feature Carlos Monje, under secretary of transportation for policy at the USDOT, Ann Shikany, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy at the USDOT, Geraldine Richmond, under secretary for science and innovation at the Department of Energy, and Marion McFadden, principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Other sessions on Jan. 8 and 9 on the topics of transportation infrastructure, safety and workforce issues, and managing risk will include secretaries and commissioners of the California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Puerto Rico, Texas, Utah, and Washington departments of transportation.
Curated programs on critical issues in transportation, including climate change, equity issues, infrastructure, public health, safety, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles and alternative fuels, are available here. Other notable topics with extensive coverage at the conference include aviation, energy and the environment, pedestrians and bicyclists, public transportation, and rail.
To follow online conversations about the annual meeting, use the hashtag #TRBAM and follow TRB on X (formerly known as Twitter) @NASEMTRB.
TRB is a program unit of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. The Academies operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.
