Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

CCEE Professor Ed Kannel is the 2009 recipient of the Patrick T. McCoy award

 

CCEE Professor Ed Kannel is the 2009 recipient of the Patrick T. McCoy Transportation Education Professional of the Year Award from the Missouri Valley Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (MOVITE). Ed received his BSCE in 1966 from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, his MSCE from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 1967 and his PhD from Purdue University in 1972.

Ed has been a Civil Engineering faculty member at Iowa State University for 35 years. Although his primary teaching and research interests have been in transportation planning and safety, he has had the privilege of teaching undergraduate classes from freshman level surveying and orientation classes, to nearly every graduate class in the transportation division.

At one stage in his ISU career he simultaneously held the titles of Transportation Division Leader, Associate Chair of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Coordinator of Undergraduate Programs, and Director of Graduate Education.

Professional society contributions have included chairing national committees within ITE and ASCE, but he is most proud of the accomplishments of the Iowa State students in their community and professional programs that have earned them MOVITE and regional awards within ITE. Professor Kannel has served approximately 20 years as advisor to the Iowa State University Transportation Student Association (TSA) bringing engineering, planning and logistic students together to broaden their interest and understanding of the opportunities in transportation.

“Dr. Kannel’s contributions to the profession and the MOVITE organization over the past decades include educating and fostering interest in the traffic and transportation engineering field through his role as a Professor of Engineering at Iowa State University. Dr. Kannel deserves to be recognized by our organization for his long term investment in the transportation industry as an educator and advisor,” says Doug Ripley of MOVITE.

Ed will receive the award on September 21 at the Fall MOVITE meeting in Springfield, Missouri.

PATRICK T. MCCOY Transportation Education Professional of the Year Award

In 2001, the MOVITE Executive Board approved an annual award to be presented to an academic professional who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of transportation/traffic engineering through their dedication in higher academics. The award will recognize an individual for contributions over a period of years to the transportation/ traffic academic profession and their service to MOVITE/ITE.

This award was named after Patrick T. McCoy by the Executive Board in 2002. Patrick T. McCoy, PhD., Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln specializing in the teaching of courses in Traffic and
Transportation Engineering. Pat was a mentor and inspiration to hundreds of students over his 26 year tenure at UNL (1976‐ 2002) and during his eight year appointment at Texas A&M University (1965‐1973) while working as an instructor and engineering research associate at the Texas Transportation Institute. Pat also worked with the consulting traffic engineering firm of Pinnell, Anderson, Wilshire and Associates from 1973‐1976.

Originally from Iowa, Pat received his BSCE degree in 1963 and his MSCE degree in 1964 from Iowa State University. He received his PhD from Texas A&M University in 1971. Pat joined the Missouri Valley Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (MOVITE) in 1976. He was elected to the MOVITE Board as a Director in 1987 and continued his progression through all of the Board offices, serving as President of MOVITE in 1992. Pat went on to serve as Secretary on the ITE District 4 Board of Direction in 1993.

While at UNL, Pat was appointed Vice‐Chairman of the Civil Engineering Department in 1993 and served as Director of the Mid‐America Transportation Center since 1995. He was appointed Leonard A. Lovell Professor of Civil Engineering in 1998. He was the faculty adviser to the UNL student chapter of ITE for several years. Several of his students won MOVITE Best Student Paper Award competition and the Nebraska ITE Student Chapter won the Best Student Chapter Award for MOVITE and District 4 several times over the years.

In 2001, Pat was honored by being selected to receive the first MOVITE Transportation Education Professional of the Year Award for his lifetime achievements as a teacher in the field of transportation engineering. His current and former students were asked to stand and be recognized at the presentation ceremony. It appeared that over half of the crowd of more than 100 persons had Pat for a professor for at least one course during their college careers. Pat taught graduate and undergraduate courses in traffic operations and control, geometric design, and highway safety.

Pat passed away in 2002.

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