Dr. Wei (David) Fan currently serves as a full professor and the transportation area coordinator in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and a Distinguished Scholar in the William States Lee College of Engineering (LCoEN) at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). He is the Director of the USDOT University Transportation Center for Advanced Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education (CAMMSE) housed directly under the CEE Department at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Fan is also a thrust leader/associate director of the NC Transportation Center of Excellence on Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Technology. He is the founding director of the Smart, Safe and Sustainable (S3) Transportation Lab at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Fan holds a Ph.D. (May 2004) in Civil Engineering – Transportation from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ’em Horns!). He was a Senior Analytical Optimization Software Developer for the R&D Department at SAS Institute Inc. located in Cary, North Carolina from June 2004 – August 2006. Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, he was an assistant (and later an associate) professor of Civil Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) from August 2006 to August 2013.
Dr. Fan’s primary research interests include big data analytics in transportation (machine learning, artificial intelligence, travel demand analysis, transportation safety data analysis, and discrete choice modeling); connected, autonomous and electric vehicles (technologies, impact analysis, simulation and modeling, optimization and control); shared mobility and multimodal transportation (carsharing, bike-sharing, public transit, and non-motorized transportation (bicycle and pedestrian) systems planning and operations); traffic system operation and control (traffic simulation, and active traffic management including variable speed limits and managed lanes); transportation system analysis and network modeling (equilibrium-based traffic assignment, network design and highway improvements, travel time reliability, freeway bottleneck identification and mitigation, and congestion pricing); operations research (optimization and statistics); and computer software development. Dr. Fan serves as the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology, an associate editor of ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions – Intelligent Transportation Systems, an associate editor of Transportation Planning and Technology, and a handling editor on the Transportation Research Record (TRR) inaugural editorial board, while also serving as a member of two other transportation journal editorial boards. Dr. Fan also serves as a member on the National Science Foundation (NSF) review panels, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) panels, the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) panel, as well as a member on three American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) committees and three Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees. He also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Cross-Cutting Division for World Transport Convention. He has been working as an active ad hoc reviewer for more than 20 prestigious journals as well as the national Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) (2010 version). In September 2024, Dr. Fan was ranked among the top 2% of the most-cited scientists worldwide in both “Single year 2023” and “Career” categories in the field of “Economics and Business” -> “Logistics and Transportation” (1st subfield) and “Civil Engineering” (2nd subfield). Dr. Fan was the recipient of the Best Area Editor Award (i.e., Autonomous Vehicles and Intelligent Infrastructure) at the 19th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP2019) at Nanjing, China in July 2019 and the Excellent Paper Award from the 2018 World Transport Convention at Beijing, China in June 2018. He was also a nominee for the College of Engineering Graduate Teaching Award at UNC Charlotte in 2016. Dr. Fan received the University Research Award at the University of Texas at Tyler in April 2012 and was selected by the students as the Best Civil Engineering Professor of the Year 2007 at UT Tyler and was a proud ASCE Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Teaching Fellow in 2007.
Dr. Fan has been and is involved in many sponsored projects with a total of over 17.35 million dollars in funding, having been a principal or co-principal investigator on many research studies for the U. S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), SHRP2 Education Connection, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). He has published 135 peer-reviewed journal articles thus far, and many other proceeding papers and technical reports on big data analytics in transportation, connected, autonomous and electric vehicles, shared mobility and multimodal transportation, traffic system operation and control, and transportation system analysis and network modeling. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas.
Summary:
– Ranked among the top 2% of the most-cited scientists worldwide in both “Single year 2023” and “Career” categories in the field of “Economics and Business” -> “Logistics and Transportation” (1st subfield) and “Civil Engineering” (2nd subfield)
– Director of the USDOT University Transportation Center for Advanced Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education (CAMMSE – http://cammse.uncc.edu/), which is a 8-year, $12.75 million, multi-campus research center led by the UNC Charlotte
– Extensive teaching, research and service as well as leadership experience
– Proven ability as a leader to explore synergies and engage colleagues across departments, colleges, and universities in pursuing multi-million $ research projects at both federal and state levels
Contact:
Wei (David) Fan, Ph.D. (Hook ’em Horns!), P.E.
Professor and Transportation Area Coordinator
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Distinguished Scholar, William States Lee College of Engineering (LCoEN)
Founding Director, Smart, Safe and Sustainable (S3) Transportation Lab
Affiliate Faculty, School of Data Science (Courtesy Appointment)
University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte)
EPIC Building, Room 3261
9201 University City Blvd. | Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
Phone: 704-687-1222 | Fax: 704-687-0957
wfan7@uncc.edu | https://sites.google.com/view/professorweifan/
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Transportation Science and Technology
Associate Editor, ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (IEEE-ITS)
Associate Editor, Transportation Planning and Technology
Handling Editor, Transportation Research Record (TRR) Inaugural Editorial Board
“They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”
