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Volpe Center Highlights - Spring 2005

Director's Notes

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Global Connectivity
Environmental Stewardship | Security | Organizational Excellence
Highlighting Volpe Experts | Awards | Published and Presented

A New Beginning

I am pleased to write the Director's column for the Spring issue of the Volpe Center Highlights -- the first to be published since I became Director of the Volpe Center in January of this year. Before I came to the Volpe Center I had heard much about its reputation for technical excellence in transportation research, development, and technology deployment. My experience during the past few months has confirmed this impression. I have learned about the breadth of Volpe's work supporting the Department of Transportation as well as the transportation requirements of other agencies.

My tenure at the Volpe Center coincides with changes within the DOT and within Volpe Center's parent organization. Under the Norman Y. Mineta Research and Special Programs Improvement Act, the Research and Special Programs Administration becomes two agencies: the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), which focuses on pipeline and hazardous materials, and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), which focuses on innovation and research in transportation technologies and concepts. As part of RITA, the Center has the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to supporting each of the modal agencies of the DOT. Going forward, we will align ourselves with the RITA mission and work toward DOT Secretary Mineta's vision of RITA as an organization that combines the best of entrepreneurial organizations with the best of academic institutions.

Each issue of Highlights presents a Focus article on a significant Volpe effort. In this issue, the Focus article describes Volpe's approaches to professional capacity building -- where education specialists develop the best methods to keep the transportation workforce current with technological and organizational changes in their work environments.

I appreciate how the Volpe Center's 35 years of experience provides continuity, stability, and institutional memory to our customers. One of my priorities is to maintain the legacy of customer satisfaction: continuing to perform excellent work and to be responsive to our customers are goals that are central to our success and key to our contribution to the problems facing the transportation enterprise today. Additionally, working through RITA, the Volpe Center will assist the DOT in identifying and facilitating solutions to longer-term transportation problems and opportunities.

About Curtis J. Tompkins, the New Volpe Center Director.

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