Patricia “Pat” Mokhtarian, associate director of the National Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand (TBD), received the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award from Northwestern University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS).
The award recognizes Prof. Mokhtarian’s distinguished career and contributions to transportation research. She earned her MS and PhD from Northwestern University in 1977 and 1981, respectively.
Dr. Mokhtarian is a Regents Professor and the Clifford and William Greene, Jr. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Over a career spanning more than four decades, she has made foundational contributions to the study of travel behavior, including how attitudes and lifestyle choices, telecommunication technologies, emerging mobility systems, land use, and changing work patterns shape the way people travel.
The Northwestern honor adds to a distinguished record of professional recognition. Dr. Mokhtarian was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024 for improving transportation planning and practice through the quantification of human behavior. She received the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021 and was named to the inaugural class of Northwestern University Transportation Center Fellows in 2023.
At the October 2 ceremony, Professor Mokhtarian was joined by Karen Smilowitz, a Northwestern IEMS faculty member and associate provost for undergraduate education, and Simge Küçükyavuz, professor and chair of the IEMS department.
The TBD Center congratulates Pat on this well-deserved recognition and celebrates her continued contributions to understanding the changing forces that shape mobility.
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