President's Message
Our First International Conference in China
by Kam Movassaghi, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE
President, Transportation and Development Institute of the ASCE
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I am pleased to report that our very first international conference – the International Symposium on Transportation and Development Innovation Best Practices – in Beijing China was a success. Our local sponsor was China Academy of Transportation Sciences. The symposium was held in conjunction with the International Conference on Transportation Infrastructure. Concurrently, two other related events were taking place: the China Transpo 2008 and Intertraffic China 2008. The latter two events were large exhibitions devoted to transportation systems and technology.
In 1997 I had the opportunity to visit China on an invitation by the Ministry of Communication in Xian Province. I visited Beijing, Xian and Shanghai. I was absolutely amazed to witness the changes that have taken place over a decade. China is experiencing an unmatched rate of growth. T&DI’s efforts in establishing relationships with China and other rapidly developing countries such as India, Thailand and Vietnam will provide tremendous future opportunities for our membership.
I would like to acknowledge Eva Lerner-Lam, Chair of the Steering Committee of the symposium and the other committee members (Kumares Sinha, Louis Cohn, Jon Esslinger, Marsha Bomar, Peter Lai, and Rachel Liu) for their tireless efforts in making the symposium a success. I also would like to thank David Mongan, ASCE President, for his participation at the symposium. In Beijing, I accompanied David on visits to China Academy of Transportation Sciences, China Communications Press and attended a luncheon given by China Civil Engineering Society.
One of my responsibilities at the symposium was to make a presentation at the second plenary session. I choose to speak about T&DI, its activities, future challenges and how T&DI can provide opportunities for innovation and promoting best practices. I commented on T&DI’s flexibility and our process in rethinking our organization. I also emphasized T&DI’s role with regard to ASCE’s Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 and its initiative on Sustainable Development Action Plan which is designed to fulfill the Society's commitment as called for in "A Sustainable Future for the Planet." This plan provides for a strong, integrated, Society-wide program to help achieve ASCE's vision of creating a sustainable world.
I took the liberty of extracting and sharing with the audience excerpts from a white paper on green transportation and sustainability that was prepared by the task committee appointed following our Leadership Workshop last November. I talked about many worldwide observed trends such as the rapid increase in world population and migration to urban areas, especially in developing countries. These trends provide major challenges for our profession, particularly when we fully subscribe to the notion of creating a sustainable world. I look forward to continuing work of our task committees on this and other issues of importance to the institute. The work of these task committees will be the foundation of our future activities.
Lastly, I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate two of our distinguished members in being elected Distinguished Member of ASCE. Mike Walton (Formally C. Michael Walton, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE) is well-known to many of us. He is a charter member of T&DI and served on the institute’s very first Board of Governors. Cranston Rogers, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, Col. USAR (Ret.) is the second honoree. Our congratulations and best wishes to both!
