Lakshmanan Confirmed by Senate for Reappointment as BTS Director

Contact DOT 80-97 Bill Adams 202-366-5580

Tuesday, May 27, 1997 -- The U.S. Senate on Friday, May 23, confirmed by unanimous voice vote the reappointment of Dr. T.R. Lakshmanan for a second four-year term as director of the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). President Clinton announced his intention to reappoint Lakshmanan on Jan. 9.

"I am delighted that the Senate has voted to reappoint Dr. Lakshmanan as head of BTS and that we will continue to have him guide the department in the implementation and expansion of our excellent statistical programs," said Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater.

Prior to becoming the first director of BTS, Lakshmanan was founder and executive director for over 15 years of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University. Prior to that, he was professor of geography and environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

As a visiting scholar at various universities here and abroad, including Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lakshmanan conducted studies on the contributions of infrastructure to the economy and the ongoing industrial restructuring of the global economy. He was the recipient of numerous grants at Boston and Johns Hopkins Universities.

A native of Madras, India, he received a bachelor's degree in science with honors from the University of Madras in 1952 and a master's degree in 1953, and a doctorate from Ohio State University in 1965.

The mission of BTS is to compile, analyze and publish transportation statistics, operate a long-term data collection program, issue guidelines for the collection of information by the department, coordinate the gathering of information within the department, make statistics accessible and understandable, and identify information needs in transportation.