Robert E. Paaswell is an American civil engineer and the current Distinguished Professor at the Grove School of Engineering,

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

. He previously served as the interim president of the

and CEO of the

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of public transport, mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago "L" and List of Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, CTA bu ...

Education

He graduated from Columbia College in 1956 and from

Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university ...

in 1957. He received a M.S from Columbia in 1962 and a Ph.D. from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

Career

From 1964 to 1982, he was a professor at the

State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...

, where he helped establish the Center for Transportation Studies and Research. He was also the chair of SUNY-Buffalo's urban planning department. From 1982 to 1986 he chaired the Urban Transportation Center at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. From 1986 to 1989, he served as the CEO of the

, the second largest public transportation system in the U.S. From 2009 to 2010, he was the interim president of the

. From 1990, he has been a director of the University Transportation Research Center at

and is now director emeritus.

Personal life

He is married to Rosalind Paaswell,

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

's first deputy commissioner for economic development and the couple have a son and a daughter.

References

External links

Who's Who in Engineering Academia: Robert Paaswell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paaswell, Robert E. Living people 21st-century American engineers City College of New York faculty University of Illinois faculty Rutgers University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American chief executives Columbia College (New York) alumni Chicago Transit Authority University at Buffalo faculty