University Park, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI) at Penn State has been renamed to honor the late transportation leader Thomas D. Larson following approval from the University's Board of Trustees Friday (Jan. 18).
The new name is The Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institute. Larson was a student and professor of civil engineering at Penn State who served as the secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and later as head of the Federal Highway Administration.
While at Penn State, Larson co-founded PTI in 1968 and served as its first director. PTI is an interdisciplinary center for research in the areas of transportation operations, transportation infrastructure and vehicle systems and safety. The center coordinates the research of 47 faculty affiliates and in fiscal 2005-2006 had research expenditures in excess of $7.5 million.
Larson also played a significant role in the development of Innovation Park at Penn State, a 118-acre research park that currently provides tenants with access to Penn State’s scientific, engineering, technology and business resources. At the state level, Larson retooled and improved the management of the Department of Transportation during his time as secretary. As head of the Federal Highway Administration, Larson helped implement policies that encouraged innovation, moved the national transportation system into the post-interstate era and championed research and technology. Upon retiring from this role in 1993, Larson returned to central Pennsylvania, where he actively pursued consulting activities, served on the advisory board of PTI and helped lay the groundwork for the new Schlow Centre Region Library.
Larson died in 2006.
In 2007 The Thomas D. Larson Fund for Excellence was established in Penn State's College of Engineering to promote professionalism in transportation.
Goals of the endowment are to engage undergraduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary programs; develop academic and research programs that demonstrate the importance of integrating public and private sector transportation issues; establish undergraduate scholarship and graduate fellowship support; enhance transportation-related teaching and research facilities; and provide students and faculty with state-of-the-art equipment and technology.