Sarah Dennis-Bauer

Post-Doctoral Researcher, Urban Freight Lab

srdennis@uw.edu | Wilson Ceramic Lab 111

Freight
Sustainable transportation
Emissions and air quality
Public health
Environmental epidemiology

Sarah Dennis-Bauer is working on the HEI-funded Managing the Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP) Effects of Urban Warehousing Near Historically Marginalized Communities: A Scenario Analysis of Technology and Land Use Based Strategies project. Her primary role is leading the InMAP air quality modeling and analysis, and related health effect estimation.

Sarah Dennis-Bauer is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab. Her educational background is in transportation engineering and public health. Her research interests lie in the intersection of these two fields, with a focus on the freight sector. She is interested in developing data-driven methods to quantify the externalities of the freight sector, and evaluating feasible mitigation strategies for these externalities.

CUTC Outstanding Student of the Year (Council of University Transportation Centers, 2024)
Outstanding Student of the Year (National Center for Sustainable Transportation, 2025)
Best Teaching Assistant Award (UC Davis Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2021)

B.S. in Public Health from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
M.S. in Epidemiology from the University of California, Davis
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Davis

Sarah Dennis-Bauer is a transdisciplinary researcher in transportation engineering and environmental epidemiology. Sarah’s research interests are centered around sustainable freight transportation, specifically focusing on the public health and environmental justice concerns of urban freight. She graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a BS in Public Health and an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She also has an MS in Epidemiology and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Her recent publications include:

Dennis-Bauer, S., Jaller, M., Amador, S., and Forscher, E. (2024). Assessing grocery shopping behaviors during a health crisis. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
Jaller, M., Xiao, R., Dennis-Bauer, S., Rivera-Royero, D., and Pahwa, A. (2023). Estimating last-mile deliveries and shopping travel emissions by 2050. Journal of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.
Dennis-Bauer, S. and Jaller, M. (2023). Truck transportation in California: Disaggregating public health costs from criteria pollutants. Journal of Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.

Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara

Research Engineer, Urban Freight Lab

giacomod@uw.edu | 206-685-0567 | Wilson Ceramics Lab 111

Publications on Google Scholar

View CV

Urban transportation
Urban logistics
Operations research
Effectiveness of ebikes for last-mile delivery

Best Practical Implications Paper Award, Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting Urban Freight Committee (AT025) for “Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviors and Decision Making: Lessons Learned from Urban Ridealongs” (2021)
President’s Graduate Fellowship, Singapore University of Technology and Design (2013-2018)

Ph.D., Engineering Systems and Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) (2018)
Dissertation: Commercial Vehicles Parking in Congested Urban Areas
M.S., Statistics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) (2012)
Thesis: Factor Approach to Forecasting with High-Dimensional Data
B.S., Economics and Business, Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS) (2010)
Thesis: A Monopolistic State in Competitive Markets

Dr. Giacomo Dalla Chiara is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Urban Freight Lab. Before moving to Seattle, he was postdoctoral research fellow at the Singapore University of Technology and Design in 2018 and visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017. He holds a PhD in Engineering Systems from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (Singapore), a MSc in Statistics from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and a BSc in Economics from LUISS University (Italy).

His research focuses on statistical methods applied to urban mobility problems. His work involves developing models and simulations to study and develop new sustainable urban logistics practices.

The Practicum (SCTL 507)

Guest Editor, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice (Elsevier) (2021)

Dr. Ed McCormack

Research Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC)
Director, Sustainable Transportation Master's degree program

edm@uw.edu | 206-543-3348 | Wilson Ceramics Lab 108

Publications on Google Scholar

View CV

Freight Mobility in Urban Areas
Transportation Technology Evaluation
Freight Systems Performance Measurement

Dr. Ed McCormack’s research program is broadly around the theme of the use of technology to improve mobility for people and goods. Improved data storage, wireless communications, and faster computers have created new streams of high quality transportation information. This information allows operators and the public to be more strategic and efficient about using our transportation system but also requires new thinking and innovative approaches. Given the belief in our society that technology can solve many problems, one challenge that he frequently addresses in his research is elemental: what works? For example, his research has evaluated the application and usability of different in-vehicle tracking technologies and of freight-oriented traveler information systems.

A second topic of importance is his recent research—derived from his interest in technology—that explores the development of quantitative tools that can use streaming data. Many of his projects have used these data to create performance measures that allow the monitoring of vehicle travel activity and the calculation of metrics that support engineering and planning decisions.

He has increasingly focused on freight mobility. Despite freight’s obvious importance to our society, this area of transportation has traditionally been understudied by academics, particularly in comparison to people transportation. As a researcher, he has found that there are opportunities to provide innovative insights in this area.

Faculty Appreciation for Career Education & Training (FACET) Award for mentoring of students (2020)

Ph.D., Geography, University of Washington (1997)
Dissertation: A Chained-Based Exploration of Work Travel by Residents of Mixed Land-Use Neighborhoods
M.S., Civil Engineering, University of Washington (1985)
Thesis: An Examination of Transit’s Work-Share Using Census Journey–to-Work and Transit On-Board Survey Data
B.S.E., Geography, University of Washington (1979)

Dr. Ed McCormack is an international leader in truck GPS data applications for freight performance measurement, and technology that facilitates truck flows along roadways and through border crossings and marine ports. He developed methods for the Washington State Department of Transportation and the Norwegian government to measure truck speed and reliability performance on highways and roads through the analysis of truck GPS data. He recently served as the Chief Engineer in the ITS section of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

He holds a PhD in Geography, MS in Civil Engineering, and a BA in Geography—all from the University of Washington. Before working at UW, he was an engineering consultant with David Evans and Associates and a transportation planner with both King County and the Puget Sound Regional Councils.

Dr. McCormack has worked on National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board (TRB) projects to identify and improve truck bottlenecks, incorporate smart growth principles into freight forecasting tools, and help public agencies obtain freight data and turn it into valuable information.

He is an independent evaluator for U.S. Department of Transportation freight technology projects, including those addressing truck queuing and congestion. He is directs and teaches in the Sustainable Transportation Master’s degree program and Livable Communities certificate program.

Professor (II), Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Adjunct Research Associate Professor, Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington

Amelia Regan

Amelia Regan(no longer at UFL/SCTL)

Affiliated Researcher, Urban Freight Lab
Teaching Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

aregan8@uw.edu | Wilson Ceramic Lab 202D

Publications on Google Scholar

Freight transportation
Optimization
Vehicular communication
Environmental impacts of transportation systems

MSE, Ph.D., Civil Engineering (Transportation Systems), University of Texas, Austin
M.S., Applied Mathematics, Johns Hopkins University
B.A.S., Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania

Amelia Regan has been fascinated by freight transportation (especially trains and trucks) since she was a child. She worked for UPS when she was an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. She later worked at the Association of American Railroads and then returned to UPS when they started an Operations Research Group in the late 1980’s. After finishing a Ph.D. under the inspirational supervision of Hani Mahmassani and Patrick Jaillet at the University of Texas, Austin, she joined the University of California, Irvine. Now a Professor Emeritus, she held appointments in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Computer Science over 25 years and supervised 22 PhD students and many MS students to completion. The opportunity to return to freight and logistics at this point in her career is a dream come true. There has never been a better time to be studying and working in supply chain management, an no better place to do it than the University of Washington.

Introduction to Supply Chain Transportation & Logistics (SCTL 501)