ASCE has honored Yinhai Wang, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, with the 2023 Francis C. Turner Award for leadership and pioneering innovations in smart transportation systems for safer and more efficient infrastructure system management and operations.
Wang has achieved international prominence in leading several major efforts at ASCE, including becoming FY2019 president of the ASCE Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) and founding the ASCE Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Impact Committee. He co-chaired the 2022 ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development (ICTD), which drew unprecedented attendance in T&DI history, largely due to his tenacity and leadership.
As a professor of civil engineering at the University of Washington (UW), Wang is the founding director of the UW Smart Transportation Applications and Research Laboratory (STAR Lab) and has served as director since 2012 for Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (Pac Trans), USDOT University Transportation Center for Federal Region 10. He is a registered professional engineering in Washington State.
During Wang’s presidency at T&DI, T&DI completed restructuring all technical committees, launched an "engineering smart x for smart cities" task force for standard development, and initiated a new council to focus on education and workforce development. He co-chaired the 2018, 2020, and 2022 ASCE International Conferences on Transportation and Development (ICTD). These are only selected samples of Wang’s professional and leadership impact in recent years.
Wang has 20 Ph.D. students graduated and 12 of them are university faculty members. His educational efforts are recognized by the ITE Innovation in Education Award for 2018, the Chinese Institute of Engineers' Asian American Science and Engineering Innovation Award in 2019, and the UW College of Engineering's Outstanding Faculty Award in 2021.
The lectureship was established by the Transportation and Development Institute (formerly the Highway and Urban Transportation Divisions) of the Society by the solicitation of gifts from the many friends and admirers of Francis C. Turner, Hon.M.ASCE, former chief engineer of the Bureau of Public Roads and retired federal highway administrator.
