Dr. Chris Monsere, PH.D., P.E. of Portland State University has been awarded the 2022 Branford Price Millar Award for Faculty Excellence. The Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards are one example of how the university honors, recognizes, and incentivizes the ongoing excellence of PSU faculty and academic professionals for their research, scholarship, service, and dedication to our students and our academy.

Monsere, who also won the 2020 Outstanding Educator Award from the Western District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), is the associate dean for academic affairs in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science and a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on improving traffic safety, especially for those bicycling and walking. Much of his research has studied new and novel (in the U.S.) designs. His research has also examined how best to manage the speed of motor vehicles—a primary factor in traffic safety deaths and serious injuries. He has collaborated on nearly $6 million in research and is the author or co-author of 44 peer-reviewed journal articles, 28 peer-reviewed conference papers, and 44 reviewed technical reports. Cumulatively, this body of research has contributed to the evidence cities throughout the country have needed to make the case to expand such infrastructure and to make changes in national guidance allowing and promoting it.

Monsere received his doctorate and master’s in civil engineering from Iowa State University and a bachelor of civil engineering from the University of Detroit Mercy. Before joining Portland State University in 2004, he held engineering positions at the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Monsere was chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2014 to 2021 and has served on many departmental, college, and university committees, including as a member of the PSU Faculty Senate from 2015 to 2018. He has been heavily engaged in the Transportation Research Board (TRB), a branch of the National Academies of Sciences.

A dedicated educator and mentor, Monsere was recognized by the Western District of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) as its Outstanding Transportation Educator in 2020. Nearly all of his research publications include student co-authors. Many of his former students are leaders in the field, working as transportation engineers or planners at public agencies and private consulting firms or as faculty at universities.

The Branford Price Millar Award is given annually to a faculty member in a tenure-track or tenured appointment who has demonstrated excellence in the areas of scholarship, instruction, university service and public service, and whose performance in the area of scholarship and research is judged to be exceptional.

Portland State University's Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) is home to the U.S. DOT funded National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI), PORTAL, BikePed Portal and other transportation grants and programs. We produce impactful research and tools for transportation decision makers, expand the diversity and capacity of the workforce, and engage students and professionals through education and participation in research.