Professor John-Paul Clarke has been appointed Chair of the Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics (ACTS), the body charged by Congress with advising the Director of BTS on the quality, reliability, consistency, objectivity and relevance of transportation statistics collected, supported and disseminated by the Bureau and by the Department of Transportation.

He received notice of his appointment to the Council in a letter dated 16 March 2010 from the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood. In that letter, Secretary LaHood expressed confidence that Professor Clarke’s participation on the Council would “…enhance the value of the council’s role as a forum for national discussion and recommendations on the Bureau of Transportation Statistic’s activities.”

His appointment as chair of the Council was made public in a subsequent announcement from Peter Appel, Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The text of that announcement was as follows:

The Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) is pleased to announce that Professor John-Paul Clarke of the Georgia Institute of Technology has been named chairman of Advisory Council on Transportation Statistics (ACTS).

Dr. Clarke has broad experience in transportation analysis and has been a key stakeholder of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.  He is currently the Director of the Air Transportation Laboratory (ATL) at Georgia Tech where his research and teaching address issues of optimization and robustness in Aircraft and Airline Operations, Air Traffic Management and the Environmental Impact of Aviation. We are very pleased with the broad range of backgrounds of the team members appointed in March, representing modes including maritime, aviation, rail, and highway/trucking with key stakeholders from both the private and public sectors, and a confident that your collective talents will help you develop especially valuable recommendations for BTS. We know that Dr. Clarke will provide collaborative and strong leadership for this team.