Volpe Technical Experts
Dr. Richard R. John,
Dr. Richard John served as the Director of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Volpe Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1989-2004. He is now serving as Director Emeritus and Acting Director at the Volpe Center.
During his thirty-five years of federal service at the Volpe Center, Dr. John has led a number of the Center's pioneering activities in support of Departmental priorities. These efforts have included his initiation and leadership of early Center work in ground-transportation engineering, which emphasized transportation-related safety, environmental compliance, and the development and demonstration of advanced vehicles; and his leadership of more recent activities including the development and deployment of transportation security systems and planning for the next generation air traffic system.
In response to the energy crisis of the 1970's, Dr. John, as Director of the Office of Energy and Environment, led the Volpe Center's program in support of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. As mandated by the Act, the work included assessment of the technical feasibility, safety, and economic practicality of alternative motor vehicle fuel economy standards.
In recognition of his work on ground transportation engineering and the future of the motor vehicle industry, Dr. John received three Secretarial Awards. . He was recognized by Secretary of Transportation William Coleman in 1976 for "technical leadership and extensive personal involvement in the Federal Task Force on Motor Vehicle Goals Beyond 1980; by Secretary Neil Goldschmidt in 1980 "for his outstanding leadership and technical direction in work on the Cooperative Auto Research Program," and by Secretary Drew Lewis in 1981 for "his outstanding response to the problems of the US Auto Industry."
During the 1980's, first as the Volpe Center's Chief Scientist and then as the Deputy Director, Dr. John led a major repositioning of the Center's programs. The work content of the Center's programs shifted from ground transportation research, development, and demonstration to the upgrade and modernization of Federally operated transportation and logistic systems such as those in the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Defense.
In acknowledgement of his work as Chief Scientist/Deputy Director, he received the Rank of Meritorious Executive in the Senior Executive Service from President Ronald Reagan in 1987, the citation reading: "Dr. John, for the past sixteen years, has been one of the Department's outstanding senior managers because he has used his broad perspective, strategic view and sensitivity to the external environment to serve Secretarial priorities."
During Dr John's fifteen-year tenure as Director, the Volpe Center became recognized both as a prototype fee-for -service Federal center and as a unique world-class capability in transportation systems knowledge and expertise. Each year as a fee-for-service entity, the Center obligated about $200 million in support of three hundred contractual agreements with clients both inside and outside the Department of Transportation. The Center's workforce for carrying-out these agreements was made-up of about 550 federal and 900 contractor employees.
To complement its contractual activities, the Center annually held five to ten outreach symposia, seminars, and workshops both within and outside the Center. Participants included leaders from government, industry, and academia. Particularly noteworthy and well-attended were the outreach events on transportation futures and on industry and government strategies for facilitating innovation and for speeding the absorption of new technologies, processes and institutional arrangements to enhance the performance of the transportation enterprise. The Center came to play a proactive role in increasing local, regional, national and international awareness of transportation issues and provided support for the intellectual underpinnings of the Department's strategic planning and visioning activities.
As Center Director, Dr. John was twice recognized as a Distinguished Executive in the Senior Executive Service, the nation's highest civil service award.
The first, from President George H.W. Bush in 1990, stated that "Dr. John's leadership accomplishments are recognized by senior managers within the Department, by major transportation shippers, carriers, and equipment suppliers, and by the private and academic research communities."
The second Distinguished Executive Award from President William J. Clinton in 2000 perhaps best summarizes Dr. John's overall accomplishments as Center Director: "Dr. Richard R John has been a leader in promoting and strengthening transportation and technological innovation in the transportation community-Simultaneously, he has successfully led the Volpe Center to become a world-class Center for research and facilitating transportation innovation. He has advised the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of the Secretary of Transportation, and several other entities including NASA, the FAA, and the USCG on the importance of future transportation systems."
Prior to joining the US Department of Transportation, Dr. John was Director of the Aerophysics Laboratory of the AVCO Corporation in Wilmington, Massachusetts, from 1957 to 1970. He led the planning, development and operation of one of the nation's first re-entry simulation facilities. The laboratory was used for the evaluation of nearly all the heat shield materials flown on U.S. Air Force and NASA unmanned and manned re-entry vehicles, including the Apollo spacecraft. He also established and led an AVCO team which developed and flew a family of advanced, low thrust electric propulsion systems for the purpose of satellite positioning and control.
Dr John was awarded his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Princeton University, receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Physics and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. His graduate work was on the nature of the combustion process in turbojet and rocket engines. He has published and lectured extensively in the fields of combustion, reentry physics, and space propulsion.
