Core Personnel

Bio

Dr. Saiedeh Razavi is the inaugural Chair in Heavy Construction, Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at McMaster University, and the Director of the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL).

Dr. Razavi has a multidisciplinary background and considerable experience in collaborating and leading national and international multidisciplinary team-based projects in sensing and data acquisition, sensor technologies, data analytics, data fusion and their applications in safety, productivity, and mobility of transportation, construction, and other systems. She combines several years of industrial experience with academic teaching and research.

Her formal education includes degrees in Computer Engineering (B.Sc), Artificial Intelligence (M.Sc) and Civil Engineering (Ph.D). Her research, funded by Canadian council (NSERC), as well as the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, focuses on connected and automated vehicles, on smart and connected work zones and on computational models for improving safety and productivity of transportation infrastructure projects. Dr. Razavi brings together the private and public sectors with academia for the development of high-quality research in smarter mobility, construction and logistics. She has received several awards including the McMasters Student Union Merit Award for Teaching, the Faculty of Engineering Team Excellent Award, and the Construction Industry Institute best poster award.

Bio

Dr. Mark Ferguson is Senior Research Associate at the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL) and brings extensive private sector and academic experience to this role. At MITL, Dr. Ferguson undertakes and supervises new research and provides mentoring and guidance to graduate students and research staff. Since 2009, Mark has played an integral role in the development of the Institute’s research portfolio and in the completion of many projects for external partners and stakeholders. Mark also publishes extensively in peer-reviewed international journals.

Mark is Project Manager of MITL’s: “The Social Costs and Benefits of Electric Mobility in Canada.” This is a five year research partnership which was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and includes multiple public and private sector organizations as partners.

Mark spent over a decade in the private sector at MapInfo Inc. and Compusearch Micro-marketing Data and Systems and focused his efforts mostly on location consulting projects. At these firms he worked on a wide range of projects for domestic and international clients. Many of these studies dealt with the banking and retail industries and had to do with sales forecasting and facility network optimization. Mark has many years of experience in the theory and application of discrete choice models.

Mark had the pleasure to complete his PhD at McMaster in (1991-1995) under the supervision of Professor Pavlos Kanaroglou. Among many other achievements, Pavlos went on to become the founding Director of MITL and Mark then returned to McMaster in 2009 to support MITL in the pursuit of its mission. After Pavlos’ untimely passing in 2016, Mark and many others at McMaster work daily to progress MITL in support of Pavlos’ legacy and towards more sustainable forms of transportation of people and goods.

Mark can be reached via email at: fergumr@mcmaster.ca

Bio

Deane is the Administrative Coordinator for the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL) since its inception in 2007. She is responsible for management of finances, human resources, space, events and some marketing.

Prior to working in MITL, Deane spent several years in the GIS Laboratory in addition to administration in the Faculty of Science. Deane graduated with a BA from McMaster University and has worked at McMaster for 35 years.

Bio

Ken is an Advisor in Strategy, Stakeholder Relations and Public Affairs at McMaster University. He currently advises the McMaster Institute for Transportation & Logistics (MITL), McMaster Institute for Multi-Hazard Systemic Risk Studies (INTERFACE), McMaster Institute for Health Equity (MIHE) and MacDATA on strategies to engage in public policy and industry development, other opportunities to advance the University’s corporate and research interests.

As a Senior Executive, Ken has a public and private sector background in economic development, corporate finance, public policy, program development and administration. He has expertise in stakeholder management, strategy development, negotiation, governance and implementation of complex, highly sensitive projects.