SPEAKER PROFILES
Scott M. Stringer, Borough President of Manhattan
Scott M. Stringer was sworn in as Manhattan’s 26th Borough President in January 2006. He became Borough President after serving 13 years in the New York State Assembly, where he earned a reputation as a catalyst for reform.
During his first year in office, Mr. Stringer helped breathe new life into Manhattan’s Community Boards, ensuring that every neighborhood will have a strong voice in decisions that impact the lives of local residents. He revamped the Borough President’s Land Use Division and effectively weighed in on crucial development projects that will shape Manhattan’s future.
His continued advocacy for development that reflects neighborhood values has resulted in victories for local residents from Battery Park to Washington Heights. Mr. Stringer worked to secure a $900,000 grant from the federal Justice Department to crack down on domestic violence in Northern Manhattan and followed through on his pledge to create the Manhattan Borough President’s Youth Sports League. The League serves more than 1,000 children across the borough by providing after-school activities.
Mr. Stringer has emerged as one of the City’s leading voices on the need for comprehensive transportation reform. He has also pursued his career-long fight for affordable housing by conducting the first ever borough-wide survey of vacant lots and abandoned buildings to identify sites for the creation of more affordable housing in Manhattan.
In 2006, he authored a number of ground-breaking policy reports on issues of importance to every New Yorker, including parental involvement in public schools, nursing home emergency preparedness, public safety and transportation. Mr. Stringer was born in Washington Heights and graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Dr. Gregory H. Williams, President, The City College of New York
Dr. Gregory H. Williams is the 11th president of The City College of New York (CCNY). Since his arrival in August 2001, President Williams' leadership has brought the College increased national recognition.
Under his leadership, the State of New York is investing more than a quarter of a billion dollars in new science facilities and a new home for the CCNY School of Architecture. President Williams is leading the first capital campaign in the College’s history, and has already raised more than $244,000,000.
President Williams has five earned degrees, including the J.D. and a Ph.D. from George Washington University, and he holds three honorary doctorates. He has been a university administrator for over 30 years, holding a wide variety of posts at The George Washington University, The University of Iowa, and The Ohio State University. Immediately prior to becoming president of CCNY, he served as Dean of the Law School and Carter C. Kissell Professor of Law, The Ohio State University.
President Williams has published three books and a number of articles and book reviews for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. He is best known for his award-winning and best selling memoir, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black, which in 1995 was selected as Book of the Year by The Los Angeles Times. In 2004, President Williams received the “Governor’s Tribute to African-American Leaders of Excellence in State Service” from Gov. George Pataki.
Dr. Gillian Small, University Dean for Research & Professor of Biology, City University of New York
Dr. Gillian Small joined the City University of New York (CUNY) in 2001. As University Dean for Research, she steers and supports the research initiatives of the University and ensures compliance with federal regulations for research. Dr. Small also has overall responsibility for supporting CUNY’s intellectual property portfolio, and is overseeing the planning and programming of a new CUNY Advanced Science Research Center.
Dr. Small received her Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences in 1983 from the University of Wolverhampton in England. She came to the United States in 1985 to conduct post-doctoral research at the Rockefeller University in New York, in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Dr. Christian DeDuve.
Her research focus is organelle biogenesis and molecular regulation of lipid metabolism. She has been consistently funded over a 20-year period by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association. She has published widely in these areas and, in recognition of her research, was named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (1992-1997).
Dr. Small has taught and conducted research at the University of Florida and at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. There she directed a research laboratory as well as headed the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology.
Dr. Neville A. Parker, Herbert G. Kayser Professor of Civil Engineering, Director, CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems
Professor Neville A. Parker is Herbert G. Kayser Professor of Civil Engineering at The City College of New York (CCNY) and Director of the CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems (CUNY-ITS), which houses the UTMSC. He joined CCNY in 1988 and previously taught at Howard University and the University Of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar.
Professor Parker is leading CUNY ITS’ effort to fully establish the UTMSC as a research, education and training center for next-generation meso/microsimulation analysis and management of traffic and its societal impacts. His areas of expertise include highway engineering and construction; project feasibility and engineering systems analysis; and transportation asset management.
Affiliated with the Transportation Research Board since 1972, Dr. Parker has participated on a number of special committees, most notably the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Research and Technology Coordinating Committee. A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, among other professional bodies, he has published numerous papers in journals. He co-authored the textbook, Essentials of Highway Engineering: With Reference to Warm Climates (Macmillan, U.K. 1988) and served on an international Peer Review Team for the development of a comprehensive Guide for Low-Volume Sealed Roads (2003).
Professor Parker received a B.E. (Civil) degree from CCNY in 1965 and his M.E. (Civil) and Ph.D. (Environmental Systems Engineering) degrees from Cornell University in 1966 and 1971, respectively. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1964-1973) and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for “meritorious service” (1971).
Dr. Kyriacos C. Mouskos, Research Professor, CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems
Professor Kyriacos C. Mouskos is a Research Professor in the CUNY Institute for Transportation Systems (CUNY-ITS) and Associate Director for UTMSC Operations. His primary areas of interest include transportation systems analysis and design, intelligent transportation systems, traffic engineering, transportation planning, and operations research.
Professor Mouskos has published and presented numerous papers on transportation network design, traffic assignment, intelligent transportation systems and advanced traveler information systems. In addition, he serves with various internationally recognized transportation organizations.
He received his B.S. (1983), M.S. (1986) and Ph.D. (1991) degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. After earning his Ph.D., he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1991 to 1992. From 1992 to 2000, he was an Assistant Professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology. A native of Cyprus, he founded CTL Cyprus Transport Logistics Ltd. in 2003. The firm is involved in several European projects.
Rene Copeland, Director of Sales for Industry and Research,
Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Mr. Rene Copeland was named Director of Sales for Industry and Research at Silicon Graphics, Inc., in October 2007. It was his second stint at SGI, having previously served as Director, Planning and Customer Relations, in the technical computing division from July 1997 to July 1998. In his current position, he is responsible for U.S. sales to the non-Defense sector. His other responsibilities include new businesses and core businesses in the U.S. Department of Energy, manufacturing, media, oil & gas industries and higher education.
Prior to joining SGI, Mr. Copeland held executive positions with several leading public technology companies. He served as: Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Linux Networx, Inc.; Vice President, Sales, Platform Computing Corp.; Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Cray, Inc., and Manager, Worldwide Manufacturing Segment, IBM.
Mr. Copeland is a combat veteran who was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army (1969 – 1974). He attained the rank of Lt. Colonel as part of the US Army Reserve and National Guard (1974 – 1992).
Mr. Copeland earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the United States Military Academy. He also attended executive management programs at Harvard University and Stanford University. Mr. Copeland is a past member of the Board of Directors for Minnesota Public Radio and for Instrumental, Inc.
Dr. Thannasis Ziliaskopoulos, President, Vista Transport Group
Dr. Thannasis Ziliaskopoulos is President of Vista Transport Group, and is affiliated with Northwestern University, Rutgers University and the University of Thessaly in Greece. He received his Ph.D. in Transportation Systems and an M.S. degree in Operations Research from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Ziliaskopoulos is an internationally known expert on Dynamic Network Modeling, with applications both to traffic and freight. He has participated in at least 50 studies – as the Principal Investigator in most of them – on developing solutions for transportation systems.
Dr. Ziliaskopoulos has developed methods for efficient simulation of large-scale networks and dynamic traffic assignment. He serves as an associate editor and sits on the editorial boards of several leading journals in the industry. Among these publications are Transportation Research-B; Networks and Spatial Economics; and the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems: Technology, Planning, and Operations. Dr. Ziliaskopoulos has also written extensively on various issues in the field of transportation. He is a member of the Network Modeling Committee of TRB and past Chair of the Network Equilibrium subcommittee.
Curtis Barrett, Vice President, Software Engineering, Vista Transport Group
Mr. Curtis Barrett is Vice President for Software Engineering and leads VISTA development. He received his B.S. degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University.
Mr. Barrett has overseen the development of VISTA from its beginning as a university research project to its current incarnation as commercially-deployable software. He has also overseen multiple projects completed with VISTA, including four for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and two for consulting firms. In addition, he has provided technical support for numerous others.
Mr. Barrett began the development of VISTA’s dynamic user equilibrium and demand calibration modules, which continue to be refined as the methods for solving dynamic traffic assignment problems improve.
