7 students awarded Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships

May 13, 2019 - By Kim Delker

Seven University of New Mexico graduate students in three different academic departments have been awarded the Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The awardees from the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering are Brittany Antonczak, Alexis Corning Padilla, Ryan Dow, Kristal Metro and Stephen Montaño. Also awarded were Michael Hensley from the Department of Economics and David Vazquez from the School of Public Administration.

The total award amount is $41,000 (or an average of around $5850 per student). The fellowships provide funding for the students to conduct research in transportation and attend the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C.

A Multimodal and Interdisciplinary Mission

The mission of the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program is to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation and advance transportation workforce development. The program is managed by the Technology Partnership Program of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and encompasses all modes of transportation (cars, public transportation, pedestrians, trucks, railroads, airlines, etc.). Students who apply must be enrolled in an accredited U.S. institution of higher education; be pursuing a degree in a full-time program in a transportation-related discipline; have at least one full academic year remaining in program of study; conduct ongoing research in one or more transportation-related disciplines; and plan to enter the transportation profession after completing their higher-level education.

The UNM Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering administered a local competition for the fellowship for the first time in the fall of 2018. The competition was open to students from most UNM departments. Voting members of the selection panel included two faculty members from the civil engineering department, one faculty member from the UNM community and regional planning department, an FHWA representative, and two NMDOT staff. Morelli served as the project manager for the competition.

UNM is again applying this spring to host a local competition. Student eligibility requirements would be the same as in 2018 and student applications would likely be due during summer 2019 (date pending).