Jonathan M. Hankey, senior research scientist in the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute at Virginia Tech (VTTI), has been conferred the title of Senior Transportation Fellow Emeritus of Research by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.

A member of the Virginia Tech community for more than 27 years, Hankey served as the associate director of VTTI for 14 years, as the director of research for eight years, with most of the researchers reporting directly to him, and ultimately served as a senior transportation fellow for the past five years, guiding the next generation of researchers and administrators. During his tenure he was awarded $103 million in sponsored research from private and government sponsors, serving as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator. He was awarded $53.6 million, the highest credited award amount of any research faculty in Virginia Tech’s history. In addition, Hankey generated an additional $1.7 million in Virginia Tech Foundation funds.

For the last 18 years, Hankey directed the National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence. This industry and government affiliates program provided approximately $800,000 in annual funding to conduct critical transportation safety research in support of safety goals broader than those of any individual stakeholder.

Hankey held leadership positions in professional organizations, including the International Standards Organization, where he led a committee that produced guidelines for annotating naturalistic driving data to allow common coding of this safety data on an international scale.

Through his work in naturalistic driving research, Hankey brought international visibility to Virginia Tech by conducting the largest naturalistic driving study in the world for the National Academies of Science. This groundbreaking research resulted in mechanisms that continue to be leveraged by researchers worldwide to use the data generated, enabling improvements to transportation safety.

Throughout his career, Hankey served as a mentor and advisor for numerous junior researchers, undergraduate, and graduate students and postdoctoral research associates and helped them develop successful careers in both academia and industry.

Hankey earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Idaho and a Ph.D. from University of Iowa.

Written by Anja Hemesath, a student writer for Virginia Tech Marketing and Communications

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