After 28 rewarding years at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) and 38 years working with the rail industry, Professor Christopher P.L. Barkan, George Krambles Director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) and Director of the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE), retired earlier this month and transitioned to a part-time research faculty position. In conjunction with this, J. Riley Edwards, Associate Professor and Senior Associate Director of the NURail CoE, assumed the role of George Krambles Director of RailTEC effective August 16. Riley was recently promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and also named the Sergio A. Pecori Faculty Scholar in Civil Engineering, which also took effect August 16.
When Chris arrived in 1998, he built on the solid foundation provided by the late CEE Professor Ernest Barenberg, Ph.D. during his 20-year tenure as Director of the AAR Affiliated Lab at Illinois. Chris pursued a joint mandate of AAR and the university to expand both the railway engineering education, and research programs as the new director of the program.
“Rail engineering had long been a distinctive strength at Illinois, but by the early 2000s it is fair to say we had reached a critical switch! One track led toward continued decline and the likely disappearance of the program; the other required a commitment to invest, rebuild, and reclaim national leadership in the field. We chose the latter course, largely because of Chris Barkan’s vision, determination, and conviction about what Illinois could become. He more than fulfilled that promise. We are grateful that thanks to his leadership, rail engineering is once again firmly on the map at Illinois and recognized as a national leader. The results have exceeded even our highest expectations.”
– Dr. Nicholas Jones, Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs of the University of Illinois System, Head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Illinois from 2002-04
Chris’ vision for the program included:
- Broadening the rail research program by engaging new faculty and extending scope of disciplines involved in rail research,
- Increasing the amount and sources of funding for rail research,
- Expanding and enriching the rail curriculum to attract top-quality students and provide them with strong fundamental understanding of the principles of rail transport, and
- Strengthening Illinois’ service to the rail industry, government, academia, and the public.
He was able to achieve these goals and more. By the early 2000s, he had added two new rail classes plus a graduate seminar to the Illinois rail curriculum. Growth in the rail courses offered continued as Chris was able to secure administrative and financial support enabling RailTEC to add new staff and faculty. This in turn led to development of the joint rail education program with KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden with the result that RailTEC now has the largest and most comprehensive railway engineering curriculum in North America. RailTEC also stands out for the breadth and depth of its rail research program, which has involved topics in civil, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering, rail infrastructure, rolling stock, operations, economics, and policy in both passenger and freight rail environments. (For more information about the history of the Illinois rail program, please see RailTEC’s history page.)
“Since joining the department, Chris has led the railroad program with outstanding strategic vision, enthusiasm, and integrity. He has mentored students and younger colleagues with exceptional generosity, wisdom, and encouragement, helping shape the next generation of railroad engineers. Their successful careers may be his most enduring legacy.”
– Dr. Robert H. Dodds, Jr., M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Endowed Chair (Emeritus) and Department Head (Emeritus) of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2004-2009)
During his years of service at Illinois, Chris supervised 15 Ph.D. students and over 80 M.S. students. Many of these students have gone on to excellent positions in the rail industry, academia, and government both domestically and internationally. Since Spring 1999, he has taught 69 courses (not including seminar, independent study, and thesis sections) with 1,057 total students enrolled, plus an additional 364 students enrolled in his seminar, independent study, and thesis classes.
Chris developed and taught two new upper-level undergraduate courses, CEE 408 (Railroad Transportation Engineering) and CEE 410 (Railway Signaling and Control) and supported development of CEE 411 (Railroad Project Design and Construction) and CEE 412 (High-Speed Rail Engineering) by other RailTEC faculty. He also taught numerous special topics courses over the years including a recurring seminar course on Advances in Rail Technology that enabled students to delve more deeply into various timely and important topics in rail transportation. He was named to the “Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students” list 14 times for four different courses taught.
“I came to the University of Illinois as a graduate student in 2002 because of the opportunity to take railway engineering courses, carry out rail related research, and to work with Dr. Barkan, whose unrivaled enthusiasm for railways and the rail engineering program is unparalleled. It was one of the best decisions of my life. Not only was Chris an amazing advisor, he also provided access to his wide-ranging network of colleagues, which enhanced my research efforts and created many employment opportunities that never would have existed without him.”
– Kevin Day, Vice President, Track Infrastructure/Maintenance, Herzog
“Professor Barkan has been a mentor who has influenced not only my academic journey, but also my life. From my years as a graduate student and researcher to becoming a faculty member and educator, his guidance, encouragement, and passion for rail transportation have continued to shape my work and the way I inspire the next generation of railway professionals in Taiwan and beyond.”
– Dr. Yung-Cheng (Rex) Lai, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan; Professor, Railway Technology Research Center, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
“Under Chris’s mentorship, first as my undergraduate advisor, then as my graduate and Ph.D. advisor, and later as a colleague at RailTEC, I participated in numerous research projects that delivered meaningful benefits to both the industry and the public. Much of this impact was made possible through Chris’s strong connections with industry partners and his ability to bridge academia and practice. Chris is a true teacher, mentor, and friend.”
– Dr. Rapik Saat, Senior Manager, Regulatory Costing, CN Railway
“Chris leaves RailTEC with an incredible legacy of education, scholarship, and industry impact. From teaching the basics of railway engineering to solving real rail industry challenges through high-quality research, Chris built a program that both prepares the next generation of railroaders and moves rail industry technology and practice forward. My rail career certainly would not have been possible without his efforts.“
– Tom Roadcap, Senior Project Engineer at AECOM
A few of the many career highlights for Chris include:
- Organizing the first Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) in 1999 and serving as its leader since. This conference is held annually and is the principal annual gathering of the North American railroad environmental community often drawing more than 400 attendees.
- Organizing and leading a seven-university consortium to form the first rail-focused US DOT University Transportation Center, the National University Rail (NURail) Center, and serving as its director from 2012-2020. He also leads its successor, the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE), a nine-university consortium, which is the first academic research and education center to be supported by the U.S. DOT Federal Railroad Administration.
Some of his research accomplishments include:
- Developing a comprehensive quantitative risk analysis (QRA) model for transportation of hazardous materials and using it with his students to conduct numerous risk analyses that helped informed risk management decisions by AAR, individual railroads, chemical and petroleum shippers, tank car companies, and others.
- Developing the first quantitative model to optimize tank car safety design. This model was used to establish new, safer design standards for tank cars transporting toxic inhalation hazard (TIH) materials, petroleum crude oil, ethanol, and other flammable liquids.
- Working with his students to develop a probabilistic multiple-tank-car train derailment and release risk model to calculate the distribution of spill sizes in unit-train derailments. This model and analysis had a direct bearing on the decisions regarding specifications for the new DOT 117J100W tank car for petroleum crude oil and other flammable liquids.
- Conducting research with his students developing an optimization model to minimize aerodynamic resistance and improve energy efficiency of intermodal trains.
- Launching a new research program in rail line capacity analysis that supported numerous graduate student research projects leading to many new insights.
In addition to his academic roles, he has served as Deputy Director of the RSI-AAR Railroad Tank Car Safety Research and Test Project since 1990 working with railroads and tank car companies, conducting research on the most effective approaches to improve railroad tank car safety design.
“Chris Barkan’s impact on RailTEC, the University of Illinois, and rail engineering throughout the U.S. is remarkable. Chris is a gifted teacher, rigorous researcher, and passionate champion for rail transportation and engineering. He has mentored and influenced hundreds of students – including myself – in the fundamentals of railway engineering, importance of critical thinking, and systems-level approach to rail transport. I wish him the very best as he retires and assumes a part-time role. I also look forward to seeing his positive workforce development impact ripple through the rail industry for many decades.”
– Dr. J. Riley Edwards, Associate Professor and Senior Associate Director of the NURail CoE
We asked Chris for his thoughts on the most important factors that contributed to the success of RailTEC over the past 28 years. “Without question, it is the many people I have had the good fortune to work with. This includes our outstanding students, talented faculty and staff, senior administrators at Illinois, who had the vision to understand the enduring importance of rail, our partners in both editions of the NURail Center, and of course our numerous friends in the rail sector who believed in what we were trying to accomplish and supported us in both spirit and substance. Especially notable among the latter were the AAR, BNSF, CN, George Krambles Transportation Scholarship Fund, and Hanson Professional Services. All of them committed significant funding to support the program’s activities in the early years thereby providing a springboard for our expanding talent and subsequent growth. More recently other Class 1 railroads, passenger railroads, US DOT, FRA, and a number of rail supply companies have partnered with us enabling further expansion of our capabilities and broadening the scope of our expertise.”
In addition to supporting RailTEC research and educational activities, these organizations have provided extensive access to data, facilities, expertise, and other elements enabling RailTEC’s success in its research and educational endeavors. Many of them have also hired graduates from the RailTEC program.
Chris will continue to be involved in RailTEC research and the Railroad Environmental Conference but hopes to find more time to enjoy his family, hobby interests, and the abundant wildlife at his new home in western Massachusetts. RailTEC wants to thank Chris for his many years of service and wish him a happy retirement.
Many (but by no means all) of the people and organizations referenced above appear in the photo gallery below so please take a look back at Chris’ impactful career at Illinois. They offer a fond trip down memory lane capturing just a few of the many highlights of his interactions, strategic partnerships, and extensive professional contributions during his tenure at RailTEC.
calls, Chris participated in meetings by any means
possible. Here he is seen on a payphone in a
park in western Pennsylvania planning the program
for the first Railroad Environmental Conference.
end-of-semester dinner at Papa Del’s Pizza in Campustown. (L-R) John O’Bryan, Jeff Cyre,
Kevin Day, Pari Haridim, Jensen John,
Pooja Anand, and Chris.
support Railroad Research Fellowships for graduate students in the UIUC Railroad Engineering Program.
In connection with this Chris was
photographed at CN’s Champaign Terminal.
Chris, and Mark Stehly at the 2004 Railroad Environmental Conference. Mark was AVP of Environmental, Hazardous Materials and Research & Development for the BNSF Railway and his office funded Rex’s Ph.D. dissertation research on improving energy efficiency of intermodal trains.
student and Ravi Srivistava were married in March and Chris was honored to serve as Pooja’s surrogate father in the traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.
and Mike Franke (right) at the Union League
Club when Chris was named George Krambles
Faculty Fellow.
of Railways and Robert Fronczak, AVP of Environment and Hazardous Materials at AAR, both spoke at the 2007 Railroad Environmental Conference and are seen here with Chris in October 2007.
(Kwan) Kawprasert, Darwin Schafer, and Yung-Cheng (Rex) Lai at the 8th World Congress on Railway Research (WCRR) in Seoul, Korea where they presented several papers on RailTEC research. Darwin (second from right) won the Young Researcher Prize for his paper.
thesis on September 9, 2008.
Chris, and Athaphon Kawprasert touring a coal transfer facility on the Daqin Railway at the port of Qinhuangdao, China following the 2009 IHHA conference in Shanghai.
plan the proposal for what would become the
National University Rail Center (NURail)
while riding a train on the Indiana Railroad in July.
attendees at the 2012 Joint Rail Conference (JRC) at Temple University in Philadelphia in April.
Tyler Dick, Chris, and grad students Brennan Caughron and Samuel Sogin at the International Association for Railway Operations Research conference in Copenhagen. Two of RailTEC’s three papers were among the five nominated for the best young researcher prize at the conference.
discuss the Railroad Track Construction activity designed to introduce K-12 students to STEM principles using basic components to build a mockup of railroad tracks to understand and measure their strength and performance.
Collegiate Quiz Bowl (L-R) Chen-Yu Lin, Samantha Chadwick, Bradford Kippen III, Darkhan Mussanov
and Aaron Cook.
NURail Center Grant Manager from the USDOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research & Technology, poses for a selfie with Chris and other members of the RailTEC research team.
Roadcap explaining freight car design at a K-12 summer STEAM camp.
Signaling and Control – one of the classes he taught for over 20 years.
aspects and indications while teaching CEE 410
from home during the COVID lockdown.
polo shirt at an NS grade crossing celebrating #RedOutForRailSafety, part of See Tracks? Think Train® Week (formerly Rail Safety Week) sponsored by Operation Lifesaver.
Pienton, CN and scholarship recipients Tommy Stogin, Jake Wagoner, and Liam Bots, and CEE alumnus Michael Franke and his wife Jean. Each year the Franke’s sponsor a scholarship to support a RailTEC student.
gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of RailTEC posed for a photograph on the steps of Engineering Hall at UIUC.
research with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (left) as Grainger College of Engineering Dean Rashid Bashir looks on.
Operations lab in April that year.
Skinner, Jr. Distinguished Transportation Research Management Award by TRB recognizing his outstanding lifetime achievement in management, administration, promotion, fostering, and implementation of transportation research, one of a number of awards he and his students have received over the course of his career.
year as a full-time faculty member was to help launch INNOVARail, a new multi-disciplinary rail research and development conference that was held in Champaign. The NURail CoE held their annual meeting at the conference and faculty and students from the partner universities are seen here with Chris.
near their new home in Deerfield Massachusetts
looking forward to retirement together.