Professors Eric Miller (University of Toronto) and Lisa Aultman-Hall (University of Waterloo) are seeking PhD applicants interested in co-advised research on long-distance and intercity travel in Canada.
Professors Miller and Aultman-Hall share a longstanding view that understanding and modelling long-distance travel is an important complement to urban daily travel modelling. Long-distance travel has significant implications for quality of life, environmental impacts, energy use, traffic congestion, and transportation infrastructure planning.
Although data in this area have historically been limited, the research team has recently been granted access to confidential geocodes in the National Travel Survey of Canada. The Waterloo team has also developed a multimodal transportation network with zone-to-zone travel times for road, rail, air, and intercity bus. Potential PhD research topics include trip generation, mode choice, accessibility, carbon emissions, and related areas.
Successful applicants would register in the Systems Design Engineering PhD program at the University of Waterloo and would collaborate with the University of Toronto through the Joint Educational Placement (JEP) program: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/supports/visiting-exchange-opportunities/jep/. This arrangement enables participation at both institutions and supports access to academic records from both universities.
Applicants will be expected to apply for the Cornfield Sustainable Systems Design PhD Fellowship at the University of Waterloo, which provides approximately $50,000 per year for four years: https://uwaterloo.ca/systems-design-engineering/cornfield-sustainable-phd-fellowship.
Please note that this fellowship is available only to Canadian citizens and Canadian permanent residents.