Christopher J. Roof
Acting Technical Center Director of Policy, Planning, and Environment, Chief of Environmental Measurement and Modeling
As acting director of the Policy, Planning, and Environment Technical Center and chief of the Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division, Christopher J. Roof has supported numerous transportation-related acoustics and air quality projects. His two-plus decades of technical experience include measurement, modeling, and analysis of noise, fuel burn, and emissions for all modes of transportation.
Roof provides technical support to the FAA Office of Environment and Energy (AEE). He helped lead the development of aviation environmental models, including the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), a model that enables analysis of noise, fuel burn, and emissions interdependencies at multiple levels. Roof also helps FAA coordinate research efforts, including those that support environmental tools. He has partnered with NASA, conducting measurement programs designed to develop and improve algorithms, as well as add new aircraft to model databases. Roof undertakes technical analyses for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aircraft Noise Committee (A-21) and the National Academy of Sciences, and supports both FAA and National Parks Service (NPS) related to aircraft overflights of national parks.
He has provided environmental support in a number of other areas, including investigations of potential impacts of hovercraft noise on humans and wildlife for the United States Postal Service (USPS), FRA’s National Magnetic Levitation Transportation Technology Deployment Program, FHWA’s Traffic Noise Model (TNM), a FMCSA analysis of potential noise impacts of increased safety inspections, a Department of Energy (DOE) analysis of electrical transmission lines, and the Federal Interagency Committee on Aviation Noise (FICAN) assessment of noise modeling tools in national parks.
The team Roof leads supports the implementation of advanced vehicle technologies for FAA, NASA, and private industry; undertakes cutting-edge research on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences; fields models that are used around the world; and works with interdisciplinary groups within the U.S. DOT Volpe Center to seek innovative solutions to the nation’s transportation system challenges. He is active with multiple committees of the Transportation Research Board.