
Mohamed Abdel-Aty, professor and trustee chair for the UCF Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, is the 2022 recipient of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) prestigious S.S. Steinberg Award.
The honor recognizes an individual who has made remarkable contributions to transportation education.
“I am so grateful to ARTBA, and to those who nominated and selected me for this prestigious award,” said Abdel-Aty. “As the top national award for an educator and researcher in transportation, this award has a special meaning to me.”
As a professor for 27 years, Abdel-Aty has served as a teacher and mentor to many students, supervising the completion of 36 Ph.D. and 60 master’s degree students. He is currently advancing 18 more Ph.D. candidates. He has also designed and established the first Smart Cities master’s degree in the U.S.
Under Abdel-Aty’s leadership, UCF’s Transportation Science and Technology program has increased its ranking to no. 33 in the world and no. 6 in the country. UCF’s Civil Engineering Department is ranked in the top 40 in the U.S. in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2020 ranking.
Abdel-Aty was also the recipient of ARTBA’s Lifetime Achievement Safety Award in 2019. In addition, he received the 2020 Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, and the 2021 Distinguished Service to Safety Award from the National Safety Council. He is a member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.
Abdel-Aty received his doctorate in civil engineering from the University of California, Davis, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from Alexandria University. He joined UCF in 1995.