About Catherine Lawson
Dr. Catherine T. Lawson is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Planning, & Sustainability, and an Affiliated Faculty member of the Department of Informatics, in the College of Emergency, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany, SUNY. She received her BA in Accounting and Economics from Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, in 1988. She received her MA in Economics in 1995, MURP in Urban Planning in 1997, and PhD in Urban Studies/Regional Science, in 1998, from Portland State University (PSU), Portland, Oregon. She has been active in data stewardship, the use of data and applied data science methodologies for transportation travel behavior, freight planning, transit planning, and Risk & Resiliency (RnR). Since 2006, Dr. Lawson has worked closely with New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) to develop the next generation of web-based, interactive transportation analysis tools. Her applied data science lab, the Albany Visualization and Informatics Lab (AVAIL), developed and deployed an interactive, web-based, FEMA-approved and New York State-adopted hazard mitigation plan for the NYS Department of Homeland Security & Emergency Services (DHSES) (see https://hazardmitigation.ny.gov/ ). She has been actively participating in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) activities, including her current position as the Group Chair for Public Transportation (AP000).
Program Director, Professor