Sunday, November 11, 2012

A Night to Remember -- Japan RSAI Honors Professor David E. Boyce for his Transportation Research

I am back from Ottawa, Canada where I took part in the 59th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 7-10, 2012.

On Friday, November 9th, 2012, I attended a truly special dinner honoring the contributions of Professor David E. Boyce. I had blogged earlier about the conference as well as a special dinner invitation that I received from Professor Yoshiro Higano, the President of the Japan Section of the RSAI (Regional Science Association International).

The dinner took place at the Sterling restaurant outside of Ottawa.

Professor Boyce was honored with a special award on the 50th anniversary of the Japan Section of the RSAI for his paper, "Predicting Road Traffic Route Flows Uniquely for Urban Transportation Planning, " published in the  Studies in Regional Science, vol.42, no.1, The 50th Anniversary Special Issue.

In his statement, Professor Higano noted that Professor David Boyce is an expert in transportation planning. He has been engaged for many years in practical urban transportation planning in large urban areas including Chicago in the US and has actively participated in international scholarly meetings of regional science, transportation planning, urban and regional planning, and so on.

In fact, Professor David E. Boyce  has attended 49 North American meetings of the Regional Science Association International in the past 49 years!    What an amazing scientific feat and, as he told me, also luck!

Professor Higano noted that the traffic assignment model, which was developed by Professor Boyce and his heirs in the field of Transportation Engineering, has had  a great impact on practice and theory in the field of urban transportation planning in Japan in 1970’s. The methodology was based on stochastic probability theory.

I can personally attest to Professor David E. Boyce's scholarship and will always value his mentorship and friendship as research in traffic network equilibrium has evolved over the decades!

He remembers the first time that he met me and that was at the regional science conference in Denver, Colorado, shortly after I had received my PhD from Brown University. My dissertation advisor, Professor Stella Dafermos, who passed away in 1990, and I had traveled to the conference.

Below, I have posted some photos of the exceptional meal and ceremony in Ottawa, hosted by Professor Higano in honor of Professor Boyce -- the conversation, stories, and laughter we will always treasure.


Congratulations to Professor David E. Boyce, who, among his many other notable recognitions, is also an INFORMS Fellow and an RSAI Fellow!