Sharareh “Sherri” Kermanshachi, a University of Texas at Arlington associate professor of civil engineering, has received the 40 Under 40 Award from Mass Transit magazine, which recognizes individuals who have shown a capacity for innovation and demonstrated leadership and a commitment to making an impact in transit.
Credit: UT Arlington
Sharareh “Sherri” Kermanshachi, a University of Texas at Arlington associate professor of civil engineering, has received the 40 Under 40 Award from Mass Transit magazine, which recognizes individuals who have shown a capacity for innovation and demonstrated leadership and a commitment to making an impact in transit.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this award and be named to the 40 Under 40 Mass Transit award list,” said Kermanshachi, who is also director of the Resilient Infrastructures and Sustainable Environment Lab at UTA, the technology transfer director of the Center for Transportation Equity, Decisions and Dollars and assistant director of research initiatives in the College of Engineering.
In 2021, Kermanshachi and her team—along with the city of Arlington, Via and May Mobility—launched Arlington RAPID (Rideshare, Automation, and Payment Integration Demonstration), an on-demand, self-driving shuttle service funded by a $1.8 million Federal Transit Administration grant. The RAPID project implemented self-driving shuttles for the public in Arlington, including free rides for UTA students from March 2021 to March 2022. Kermanshachi led the project’s research efforts and published several articles on the program.
Melanie Sattler, UTA professor and interim chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, lauded Kermanshachi for this collaborative project with public and private partners.
“Any research work that enlists the expertise of many entities is great news for UT Arlington,” Sattler said. “Reaching beyond our campus is essential to a successful research stream. Dr. Kermanshachi does that.”
Kermanshachi’s areas of expertise include autonomous vehicles, resilient infrastructures and risk analysis. She has published more than 275 books, scholarly articles, conference proceedings and research reports; of the articles, more than 90 have been published in peer-reviewed reputable journals, such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Journal of Management in Engineering, Journal of Natural Hazards Review, Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Transportation Research Record and Traffic Injury Prevention.
She also has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed conference papers in American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)’s Construction Research Congress, ASCE’s International Conference on Transportation & Development and American Society for Engineering Education’s Annual Conference and Exposition, among others.
During the last five years, Kermanshachi has also conducted 35 national, state and regional research projects funded by the Federal Transit Administration; Department of Labor; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Texas Department of Transportation; Federal Highway Administration; Transit Cooperative Research Program; U.S. Department of Transportation; North Central Texas Council of Governments; Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development; city of Arlington; Engineering Information Foundation; and city of Fort Worth.
She also has mentored dozens of postdoctoral fellows, doctoral candidates, master’s students and undergraduate researchers.
Kermanshachi also has won 44 merit-based international, national and regional awards including the 2022 Diversity Leadership Award from Dallas Business Journal, the 2022 Young Leader Award from Texas Women’s Foundation, the 2021 Rosa Parks Leadership Diversity Award, the 2021 Education Sciences Best Paper Award, the 2020 Women in Technology Award, the 2020 Mark Hasso Educator of the Year Award, 2020 Outstanding Young Faculty Award from the American Society of Engineering Education, the 2018 Design Build in America Distinguished Leadership Award and the 2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kermanshachi has published several articles focusing on evaluation of gender-based pay gaps for women across engineering fields. She also has performed multiple research and outreach projects to boost participation of women and other minorities in engineering. Kermanshachi also spends significant time encouraging female K-12 students to pursue higher education and engineering careers.