Freight & Logistics Committee

Purpose:

To address all types of intermodal freight transportation, including rail-water, rail-highway, highway- water, and highway-air modal combinations. All aspects that impact freight movement, such as rates, routes, services, transfer facilities, and containers are considered. The purpose of the committee is to advance the art and science of civil engineering by: (1) promoting the civil engineer's leading role in intermodal transportation, (2) disseminating information regarding state of the art technology as applicable to intermodal transportation, (3) fostering education and research in intermodal matters, and (4) collaborating with other technical committees of the Society and with multimodal committees of other organizations.

Join the Freight & Logistics Committee

Meet the chair

Sushant Sharma, Aff.M.ASCE

Dr. Sushant Sharma is a Asst. Program Manager and Research Scientist in the Multimodal Freight Program of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (ITI), Texas A&M University, College Station, USA. He has 17 years of experience and expertise in freight mobility, planning, modeling, network modeling, travel demand modeling, big-data analysis, and traffic operations.

At Texas A&M Transportation Institute, he is responsible for the in assisting with direction and management of the Multimodal Freight Program, which includes the supervision, planning, administration, evaluation, and implementation of the program's research functions. These duties include project and program management.

Dr. Sharma has led or worked on numerous research and consulting projects sponsored by Federal Highway Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), USDOT's University Transportation Centers, and State DOTs in the US. He closely assists state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) with their specific applied research needs and works on numerous state and federal research projects.

Dr. Sharma has published a book chapter, more than 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers, and 27 technical/research reports on topics such as freight modeling, safety, real-time traffic operations, network modeling, travel forecasting, evacuation, GIS data integration, and transit asset management.

Dr. Sharma is an Associate Editor of Transportation Research Records and serves as a reviewer and subject matter expert for nearly all transportation research-related journals.

Dr. Sharma is a well-known expert at both national and international levels. Nationally, he serves as the Chair of the Freight Transportation Planning and Logistics Committee (AT015) of the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's (NASEM) Transportation Research Board (TRB). He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Freight and Intermodal Logistics Committee and TRB's Standing Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity. Internationally, he chairs the Freight Transport Modeling Group of the World Conference on Transportation Research Society (WCTRS). The TRB Committee led by Dr. Sharma received the 2023 and 2024 Blue Ribbon Awards for implementing research into practice and promoting committee diversity. Dr. Sharma also received a Best Researcher Award from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in 2023.