Zachary Jerome Honored with Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award for 2026
Photo credit: Calvin Tuttle/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, UMTRI
Dr. Zachary Jerome, a former student and researcher affiliated with the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT), has been awarded the Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award by the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC), a national honor recognizing one doctoral dissertation in the field of science and technology in transportation studies. Zachary received the award during the CUTC Winter Banquet at the 2026 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Named after Dr. Milton Pikarsky, a pioneer in public works and transportation, the award recognizes two students, one for a Master’s thesis and one for a doctoral dissertation, across the 30 university transportation centers nationwide. The CUTC Student Awards Committee establishes a review subcommittee to grade the received reports on a scale from 1-100. Dr. Jerome will receive $2,000 honorarium.
CUTC is an organization established in 1979 by the major transportation research centers and institutes across the United States. According to their website, CUTC’s mission is to “promote university research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer as essential to the nation’s transportation system”. This is the second award Dr. Jerome has received from CUTC, with his first in 2023, when he was named the Student of the Year by CCAT. He was nominated for his publications, including “Trajectory Data Processing and Mobility Performance Evaluation for Urban Traffic Networks”, “Predicting Lane-by-Lane Flows and Speeds for Freeway Segments”, and “Determining Yellow Change and Clearance Intervals for Left-Turning Phases: Evaluation of the Current Guidelines with Connected Vehicle Data”.
Dr. Jerome earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2025, where his dissertation, “Systematic Management of Traffic Signal Timing with Vehicle Trajectory Data,” presents one of the world’s first traffic signal timing management systems that relies solely on vehicle trajectory data. The system monitors current traffic signal performance, diagnoses issues, and targets retiming interventions, providing a low-cost solution for municipalities that can only retime signals once every five years or more.
“I would like to thank the Council of University Transportation Centers for this incredible recognition of my Ph.D. dissertation. This award reflects the exceptional research environment that Dr. Henry Liu has created in the Mobility Transformation Lab (MTL). I consider this a collective achievement and am grateful to my colleagues at MTL for their support and contributions throughout my doctoral studies.”
Dr. Zachary Jerome, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Mcity, CEO, Connected Traffic Intelligence
Prior to earning his Ph.D., Zachary served as President of the Michigan Transportation Student Organization (MiTSO), a club for students interested in transportation planning and engineering. The organization is advised by Professor Neda Masoud and supported by CCAT through conference funding, speaker event coordination, and more. During his tenure as President, MiTSO received the Student Chapter Momentum Award at the 2023 Great Lakes District Annual Meeting.
Photo credit: Calvin Tuttle/University of Michigan, College of Engineering, UMTRI
Dr. Jerome’s traffic signal timing research has led to real-world implementation in southeast Michigan. In 2022, the University of Michigan team partnered with the Road Commission for Oakland County to bid on a U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grant. The award led to the deployment of the traffic signal retiming system in Birmingham, MI, and Oakland County. In his 2023 interview, Dr. Jerome stated he is interested in “working at the intersection of research and industry by facilitating the implementation of state-of-the-art research”.
This is the second time a CCAT student researcher has received the Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award, following Dr. Sikai Chen’s nomination in 2019. Dr. Jerome now serves as a postdoctoral research fellow for Mcity, an interdisciplinary private-public partnership housed at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), and CEO of Connected Traffic Intelligence.
This story was written by Calvin Tuttle of the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT).