Georgia Tech's Dr. Thomas Wall Receives the ACRP Graduate Research Award

Dr. Thomas A. Wall, of Georgia Tech's Infrastructure Research Group, was recently selected to receive the Airport Cooperative Research Program's Graduate Research Award. He received it in conjunction with his paper, "Exploring the Use of Egocentric Online Social Network Data to Characterize Individual Air Travel Behavior."

The purpose of the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) is to encourage applied research on airport and related aviation system issues, and to foster the next generation of aviation community leaders. The program is intended to stimulate thought, discussion, and research by those who may become the future airport managers, operators, designers, and policy makers in aviation. The focus of this research program is on applied research to help the public sector continue to improve the quality, reliability, safety, and security of the U.S. civil aviation system well into the foreseeable future. The ACRP carries out applied research on problems not currently adequately addressed by existing federal research programs. The program undertakes research and other technical activities in a variety of airport subject areas, including design, construction, maintenance, safety, security, policy, planning, human resources, and administration.

Dr. Wall received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech in Civil Engineering last year. Originally from Seattle, Washington, his current research interests involve climate change adaptation planning and infrastructure management, as well as developing new data-sourcing methods involving individual travel behavior and social media platforms. Dr. Wall is actively involved with the Georgia Tech chapters of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and Engineers Without Borders. He is passionate about outreach and education, spending the last three summers working with local high schools to develop transportation modules for introductory engineering classes and mentoring high school students in a college engineering summer immersion program. He has served as a teaching assistant and lead instructor for the undergraduate Transportation Planning and Design Course at Georgia Tech. In 2010, Dr. Wall was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship  by the U.S. State Department to study transportation infrastructure adaptation strategies and strategic uncertainty planning methods in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Outside of academia, Dr. Wall enjoys fly fishing, hiking, and photography. 

Read more about the Graduate Research Award Program.

Read more about Dr. Wall's achievements.