UTCM Principal Investigators

PhD (Economics), Kansas State University
MS (Agricultural Economics), Kansas State University
BS (Agricultural Economics), Kansas State University

Dr. Stephen W. Fuller is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He has a B.S. and M.S. in Agricultural Economics and Ph.D. in Economics all from Kansas State University. Research focuses on transportation, marketing and international trade issues. Dr. Fuller teaches undergraduate courses in price analysis and futures & options.

RECENT AND CURRENT RESEARCH EFFORTS:

• Evaluating effect of seasonal climate forecasts on world grain markets.
• Measuring transportation saving associated with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
• Evaluating strategic role of Panama Canal in world grain trade.
• Measuring effect of NAFTA on U.S.-Mexico rice and vegetable trade.
• Measuring effect of transportation improvements in South America on competitiveness in world grain markets.
• Identification and measurement of factors affecting ocean freight rates.
• Measuring trends in grain transportation in Texas.
• Measuring effect of U.S. inland waterway's lock congestion on barge rates and grain prices.

Dr. Luca Quadrifoglio graduated with the Laurea in Chemical Engineering (1996) from the Giulio Natta Department of Chemistry, Materials & Chemical Engineering at the Politecnico of Milan (Italy).  He worked as a Process Engineer and Project Economist for Snamprogetti (ENI Group) in Milan for five years, being primarily responsible for developing large-scale techno-economic feasibility studies as a decision support tool for the firm’s executives.  He received his M.S. in Engineering Management (2002) and Ph.D. (2005) degrees from the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.  Then he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the USC’s Department of Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) until August 2006, when he joined the Faculty of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.  Dr. Quadrifoglio published a number of papers in top rated Journals, won the 2006 Pritsker Doctoral Dissertation Award (3rd place) and the 2004 Council of University Transportation Center (CUTC) National Student Award for best publication in Science and Technology.

His research interests are related to the broad field of Operations Research applied to a variety of fields, primarily Transportation/Logistics, and include Transportation Systems Modeling and Design, Network Optimization, Math Programming, Simulation, Scheduling Algorithms (Vehicle Routing, Pickup and Delivery), Innovative Transit/Logistics Solutions, Performance/Risk/Decision Analysis.

1996 PhD, Department of Civil Engineering; University of Bristol, UK
1992 MSc, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
1989 BS, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Dr. Sanchez-Silva's area of expertise is engineering risk analysis, whose ultimate goal is the decision making-process under uncertain conditions. Most of his work is related to risk assessment and risk management of engineering problems, primarily civil infrastructure. He has conducted risk analysis related to natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, flooding, landslides); development of infrastructure systems (structures and lifelines); and decision-making for resource allocation and cost effectiveness of investments in the design and operation of various types of facilities. Dr. Sanchez-Silva has extensively on Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) and approximate measures to estimate potential risks of structural facilities. Furthermore, he has experience estimating risk in complex problems under conditions where information is partial, incomplete and difficult to quantify. Finally, he has been involved in projects in which the socioeconomic and environmental contexts play a significant role and therefore traditional risk modelling and engineering methods can be applied only partially.

Dr. Sanchez-Silva's primary areas or research are:

• Reliability and risk modelling
• Risk analysis – Probabilistic risk analysis & risk management
• Infrastructure system’s performance with time - Life-cycle (cost) analysis
• Optimization of the design and operation of infrastructure systems
• Reliability-based design optimization
• Deterioration of materials and infrastructure systems
• Alternative risk modelling strategies (e.g., Biological approaches)
• Decision making