Professor Hani Mahmassani Passes Away

Hani Mahmassani, William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation, director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC), and professor of civil and environmental engineering, passed away July 15, 2025, at age 69. Mahmassani will be remembered for his expertise in transportation science and logistics, his passion for mentorship and collaboration, and his ability to communicate charismatically and clearly to the public.

After holding professorships at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Maryland, Mahmassani joined the Northwestern Engineering faculty in 2007. His areas of specialization included multimodal transportation systems, dynamic network modeling and optimization, transit network planning and design, dynamics of user behavior and telematics, telecommunication-transportation interactions, large-scale human infrastructure systems, and real-time operation of logistics and distribution systems.

Mahmassani earned a bachelor’s of science in civil engineering in 1976 from the University of Houston, a master’s of science in civil engineering in 1978 from Purdue University, and a PhD in transportation systems in 1982 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2021, Mahmassani was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, with a citation for “contributions to modeling of intelligent transportation networks and to interdisciplinary collaboration in transportation engineering.” In 2023, he received the Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award in Transportation Science from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and was part of the 2024 class of INFORMS Fellows. He was recognized with numerous other awards for his work, and was a prolific and frequently cited author.

“Hani was a visionary scholar whose impact extended far beyond the classroom,” said Christopher Schuh, Dean of Northwestern Engineering. “His leadership elevated transportation research on a global scale, and he had a talent for connecting cutting edge research with the industries that needed it most. His legacy will be felt for generations across the field and here at Northwestern.”

As director of the NUTC, Mahmassani led an interdisciplinary education and research institution serving industry, government, and the public. The center has more than 50 faculty affiliates from across the University and maintains connections with government agencies and the private sector, all to improve transportation logistics for the 21st century.

Meanwhile, Mahmassani often consulted for both public and private entities, sharing his knowledge with companies and government bodies in the United States and abroad.

“Hani was a rock star in the transportation field.  He was beloved by his students and a wonderful mentor to so many people,” said Kimberly Gray, Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Family Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering. “His work had a global reach, and he was always many steps ahead making innovative strides on a wide array of projects, in Chicago, at presidential inaugurations, at international races in Monaco. I loved learning about his surprising projects, findings, and connections.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mahmassani made important contributions by working with industry on new ideas to efficiently move products through a squeezed supply chain.

With Mahmassani’s guidance, the NUTC’s Business Advisory Council held nine weekly roundtables in the spring of 2020 with members, exploring the state of the supply chain and  affected products. The exchange of ideas and research helped formulate strategies to get needed products into the hands of consumers, through leveraging real-time data to identify and anticipate problem areas, intensifying communication with all actors along the supply chain, and engaging in collaborative arrangements even among competitors.  

“I first met Hani when I was applying to graduate school. Over the subsequent 25 plus years, he became a close colleague and friend,” said Karen Smilowitz, James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences. “Hani was an influential scholar who profoundly advanced the field of transportation science and logistics. With his broad research interests, he built bridges across research communities. Just as he served as a mentor to me, he supported the careers of countless scholars and will be sorely missed.”

Fluent in Arabic, French, and English, Mahmassani communicated complex ideas to a wide audience. Amid transportation-, supply-chain, or logistics-related news stories, Mahmassani was a sought-out voice.

His communication skills were sharpened in the classroom, where he taught students to be adaptable and resilient, and to confidently solve problems by being aware of their surroundings and addressing timely issues using the core knowledge and toolset that a Northwestern education provides.

Mahmassani worked so his expertise could positively affect as many people as possible.

“Transportation is so closely tied to society, to our everyday life in many ways,” Mahmassani said in 2021. “While it is an engineering discipline, on a day-to-day basis we’re intertwined with everything that we humans do.”

Services are pending.