Researcher named one of the most influential transport economists
The Founding Director of the University's Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies has been recognised as one of the world's most influential transport economists according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States has identified the Business School’s Professor David Hensher as a central figure in the field of international transportation research.
Using a number of criteria, a recent MIT study placed Professor Hensher at or near the centre of co-authorship networks in transportation research.
Professor Hensher, who heads the School’s internationally respected Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS), was found to be one of the world’s most prolific, influential and citied co-authors.
MIT ranked Professor Hensher the world’s leading researcher for the strength and dedication of his collaborative efforts.
Explaining the rationale behind the study MIT’s Lijun Sun and Iyad Rahwan said that “scientific research is becoming increasingly multi-disciplinary, requiring a broad range of intellectual frameworks, skills, and techniques”.
“With this trend, scientific collaboration has become a dominant mechanism for bringing about important research advances,” they said. “Collaboration is beneficial to both researchers and the progress of modern science. As a result, scientific collaborations also make teams more productive, accelerating the speed of scientific progress."
Also ranked highly amongst the world’s leading co-researchers and co-authors were the ITLS’ Honorary Professor John Rose and Professor Michael Bell.
Professor Hensher founded the ITLS in 1991 and remains the Director of the Institute.
He is particularly well known for his work in the development and application of quantitative methods for studying individual choice in a way that can assist with the planning for future transport services and infrastructure.
Professor Hensher has now been cited more than 40 thousand times in scholarly publications.
This number of citations is an Australian record for an economist specialising in transport, infrastructure and logistics and reaffirms Professor Hensher’s place amongst the world’s leading experts in this area.
In June this year, the Shanghai based Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranked the ITLS in the top ten centres in the field of transport science and technology.