Rate My Professor Joseph Schofer

Joseph L. Schofer is Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering. He holds a B.E. in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude) from Yale University, an M.S. in Civil Engineering (Transportation) from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Transportation) from Northwestern University. Joining the faculty in 1970, Schofer has had a distinguished career in engineering education and research, serving as Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1997 to 2002 and as Associate Dean of the McCormick School of Engineering. His research addresses policy analysis and evaluation for transportation infrastructure and services for passengers and freight in urban and intercity settings. He studies decision making and decision support, including needs for and use of data and information, strategies for learning from natural experiments and events such as accidents and weather disruptions, transportation finance, decisions affecting the resilience of transportation systems, and policies and actions impacting road safety.

Schofer has earned major awards including the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from the Transportation Research Board in 2011, the Thomas B. Deen Lecturer from the Transportation Research Board in 2014, National Associate of the National Research Council, Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator from the Institute of Transportation Engineers in 2003, McCormick School of Engineering Advisor of the Year in 2002, and Burlington Northern Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1987. His key publications include chairing the committee for Tackling the Road Safety Crisis: Saving Lives Through Research and Action (National Academies Press, 2024), Resilience of U.S. Rail Intermodal Freight during the Covid-19 Pandemic (Research in Transportation Business and Management, 2022), Mobility 2050: A Vision for Transportation Infrastructure (2016), and How Well Did U.S. Rail and Intermodal Freight Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic versus the Great Recession (Transportation Research Record, 2023). He chairs the Standing Committee on Data for Decision Making of the Transportation Research Board, serves on the Chicago Transit Authority Capital Advisory Committee, Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council, and Transportation Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, and has hosted the podcast The Infrastructure Show since 2009, interviewing infrastructure experts. Schofer has mentored numerous students who lead in the transportation profession.