Opening Address

Wednesday, January 26
Room 143 ABC
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Featured Speaker:
Ronald (Ron) Medford

Ron Medford was sworn in as the Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation in February 2010. He served as Acting Deputy Administrator for NHTSA from January 2009 as well as the Senior Associate Administrator (SAA) for Vehicle Safety at NHTSA. As the SAA for Vehicle Safety, Mr. Medford was responsible for overseeing the National Center for Statistics and Analysis and the NTHSA Rulemaking, Enforcement and Applied Research Programs. Mr. Medford joined NHTSA on May 19, 2003.

Prior to joining NHTSA, Mr. Medford was the Assistant Executive Director for Hazard Identification & Reduction at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In this position Mr. Medford was responsible for the regulatory and technical work of the Agency. This included overseeing the Directorates for Engineering Sciences, Health Sciences, Epidemiology, Chemistry and Engineering Laboratories and Economic Analysis. Mr. Medford spent over 25 years in a variety of technical management positions at the CPSC.

A few months prior to joining NHTSA, Mr. Medford spent 10 months on a government-sponsored sabbatical to work with Dean Kamen, an inventor from Manchester, New Hampshire. Mr. Kamen is president of Deka Research and Development Corporation and is most recently known for his inventions of the IBOT? wheel chair and the Segway? Human Transporter (HT). These two products rely on gyroscopes and motors to balance on two wheels. The IBOT allows wheel chair users to climb stairs and to balance on two-wheels in order to be at eye level when seated. The Segway HT is a device intended to allow for individual transportation in an electrically powered device, intended for use on sidewalks and other non-road uses. Mr. Medford worked on safety issues related to these two products while on sabbatical.

Mr. Medford holds a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Maryland. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife Suzanne.

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Friday, January 28
Room 143 ABC
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Featured Speaker:
David L. Greene

David L. Greene is a Corporate Fellow of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Senior Fellow of the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy and a Research Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee. He is an author of more than 200 publications on transportation and energy issues. He is an emeritus member of both the Energy and Alternative Fuels Committees of the Transportation Research Board and a lifetime National Associate of the National Academies. He is a recipient of the TRB’s Pyke Johnson Award, the Society of Automotive Engineers’ Barry D. McNutt Award for Excellence in Automotive Policy Analysis, the Department of Energy’s 2007 Hydrogen R&D Award, the International Association for Energy Economics’ Best Paper Award for his research on the rebound effect, and was recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for contributions to the IPCC’s receipt of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.A. from the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.