Tom Dingus has dedicated his life’s work to improving roadway safety through innovative transportation technologies and amassed multiple awards for his efforts.

The Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) International Humanitarian Award now joins that list. The award recognizes work with undeniably positive impact on safety in transportation in honor of Arnold W. Siegel, an automobile safety pioneer, according to SAE’s website.

SAE is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and technical experts in the aerospace, automotive, and commercial-vehicle industries. Siegel’s pioneering research shaped many of the safety systems which proliferate modern vehicles.

“It is an incredible honor to be nominated by my colleagues and recognized by the SAE, a supportive community which has helped shape my career,” said Dingus, the Newport News Shipbuilding Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech

The award was presented to Dingus April 16 at the SAE World Congress Experience conference in Detroit.

During his exemplary 40-year career at three universities, Dingus has managed over $800 million in sponsored research, $150 million of which as principal investigator, and has authored more than 300 technical publications. He served as the executive director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) from 1996-2021. During that time, he helped grow VTTI from a small transportation institute originally called the Center for Transportation Research with 15 employees into a world-class transportation institute with over 500 employees, 300 active projects, and over 100 sponsors.

“Tom has played an integral role in not only shaping our mission at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, but also influencing global transportation research and safety,” said Zac Doerzaph, the institute's executive director. “I have had the privilege of being mentored by Tom throughout my career, he is clearly deserving of this prestigious award.”

Dingus is known for his pioneering work inventing the naturalistic driving study research method in the late 1990s. The method involves installing unobtrusive video cameras and instrumentation on personal and fleet vehicles to collect driving data in the real world. The method and the associated data acquisition systems have collected data from nearly 7,000 vehicles, including cars, tractor-trailers, bicycles, and e-scooters. It would take about 1,030 years to watch all the videos.

The naturalistic driving study research method and its resulting data has been used to improve the transportation system for everyone who uses the roads, while also helping secure funding from over 100 sponsors and propelling VTTI to a top transportation research institute. Data collected and housed at the institute are currently in use by over 700 organizations in 18 countries to improve transportation safety and efficiency.

“Since I came to Virginia Tech, Tom has been an incredible mentor and teacher to me and so many others,” said Myra Blanco, chief growth officer. “The impact he has had on transportation safety has been fundamental in the current generation’s understanding of transportation safety and the included research.”

Throughout his tenure as a leader and researcher within the transportation industry, Dingus has never been a stranger to SAE. He has been a member of the society since 1986 and has given invited talks to SAE-sponsored events, such as his keynote on deploying safe, robust, and reliable technologies at the SAE International Automated and Connected Vehicle Systems Testing Symposium in 2018.

Dingus has encouraged institute leadership, both at the junior and most senior levels, to participate in a variety of SAE initiatives. This includes the assistance given to SAE collegiate design teams at Virginia Tech by allowing them to utilize the Virginia Smart Roads at the institute for their research, free of charge.

In addition to his work with naturalistic driving research and at Virginia Tech's Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Sciences, Dingus has also served as a White House Champion of Change and earned multiple national and international transportation awards, including the United States Government Award for Safety Engineering Excellence from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2023. He also published a book on how to reduce the risk of crashes while on the road, and supported hundreds of students through mentorship and as a professor.

Dingus’ nomination package boasted support from members across the transportation safety industry who have worked directly with and been benefactors of his research. Sentiments from the nominators include the following:

  • “Dr. Dingus has demonstrated leadership and vision, passion and dedication, generosity, and commitment throughout his career. His work has directly impacted policies and regulations that have saved lives, said Nat Beuse, chief safety officer at Aurora. “I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with Tom over many years and this award is a well-deserved acknowledgement of all he has done to make transportation safer for Americans.”
  • “Tom is a true visionary, and the approaches he has championed around naturalistic driving studies have transformed the way transportation safety problems are studied and understood,” said John Capp, director of global safety technology, strategy, and regulations at General Motors. “He is truly committed to safety and has exhibited an exceptionally high degree of safety leadership over the course of his career.”
  • “Dr. Dingus is a brilliant transportation researcher and pioneer who has dedicated his career to improving the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of transportation systems, with lasting social benefit to humanity,” said Sue Bai, chief engineer and chief of data business at the American Honda Motor Company. “His contributions to research, policy, and practical applications are on a scale rarely seen in our industry.”
  • “The program, capabilities, and research programs built by Tom Dingus at VTTI have had wide-reaching impact in the field of human factors and safety, in the transportation industry, in government within the US, and indeed in other countries,” said Linda Angell, president and principal scientist at Touchstone Evaluations Inc. “Tom’s achievements over a period of nearly 40 years will have lasting value for our society.”
  • “Dr. Dingus’ contributions to pioneering research, policy, and practical applications cannot be overstated,” said Michelle Chaka, senior vice president of safety and regulatory at Torc Robotics. “I had the incredible opportunity to learn from and work with Dr. Dingus on a variety of projects including the Automated Mobility Partnership which leverages VTTI’s naturalistic driving data to inform the development of connected and automated technologies. Torc Robotics continues to have a strong partnership with VTTI as Torc moves toward autonomous truck deployment.”

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