Royal award for ITS
The University’s Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) has been awarded a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, in recognition of its sustained excellence in transport teaching and research.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prize winners were announced in November at a formal reception in St James’s Palace. Professor Mark Wardman Director of the Institute for Transport Studies attended the reception, together with Vice-Chancellor Michael Arthur and Jane Francis, Dean of the Faculty of Environment.
Professor Wardman said: “It is a real honour. This is a fantastic achievement and is testament to the hard work and dedication of all those connected with ITS, past and present, who have helped establish the Institute’s reputation as a world-leading centre for transport teaching and research.”
Over the past four decades, the Institute for Transport Studies has been providing policymakers with the evidence needed to make decisions about all forms of transport, from road and rail to planes, bikes and buses.
Techniques pioneered at the Institute are now being used nationally and internationally to plan roads and public transport networks, assess transport safety, predict driver behaviour and examine air pollution.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education were first awarded in 1994 and originate from the commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the Queen’s reign. It is the first time that the University of Leeds has won one of the prizes.
Robin Gill, Founder and Chairman of the Queen’s Anniversary Trust, said: “The Prizes confer the highest national recognition on the work of our universities and colleges and the part they play in the country’s economic advance, social wellbeing and industrial self-fulfilment.”
The Prize will be presented by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at an honours ceremony at Buckingham Palace in February. Representatives from the Institute’s staff, students and alumni will accompany Professor Wardman to the ceremony.
