Xiochen Xu, a Ph.D. Student of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York was presented with the 2011 NJDOT Outstanding Student in Transportation Award. Ms. Xu was selected from a pool of potential candidates enrolled at UTRC Consortium schools. Camille Crichon-Sumners, Manager of the Bureau of Research at the New Jersey Department of Transportation presented Xiochen with a plaque at the NJDOT’s 13th Annual Research Showcase held on October 27th at the Mercer County Community College.

The 2011 Women’s Transportation Seminar Helen M. Overly Memorial Scholarship award (WTS), co-sponsored by UTRC, was given to Kwan Hui from Rutgers University. Ms. Hui is enrolled in City and Regional Planning program at the Bloustein School of Public Policy and Planning concentrating in Housing and Transportation. After graduation, Kwan hopes to begin her career as a transit planner and pursue a Ph.D. in the near future. She earned her BA in Political Science and Urban Studies at Rutgers University.

Kristen Derewecki is a Master’s of Science candidate at the School of Engineering at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Kristen’s graduate thesis is on developing specifications to use the 4 mm Dynamics Shear Rheometer (DSR) parallel plates to performance grade asphalt binders. Additionally, she is attempting to relate the results of other existing binder tests to the results obtained using the 4 mm parallel plates.

Kristen is one of the most professional individuals I have encountered and truly cares about the quality of her work. Kristen understands, and continues to respect, how much economic growth relies upon the integrity and advancement of our transportation infrastructure. After she earns her Master’s degree, she will continue to improve the ransportation infrastructure in the U.S. Kristen has done extensive research in the area of pavement materials as a Graduate Research Assistant in Rutgers Asphalt Pavement Laboratory (RAPL).