Three recent Urban Planning graduates representing the UCLA Department of Urban Planning’s M.A. and Ph.D. programs have won prestigious awards from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). Kathleen Rogers (Urban Planning M.A. 03’) won the Wootan Award for her master’s thesis, and Jeffrey Brown (Urban Planning Ph.D. ’03) won for best Ph.D. dissertation. Heather Burton (Urban Planning M.A. ’03) has been named winner of the 2003 CUTC/HNTB Non-Thesis Award. The Wootan Award is given to the two best M.A. theses for graduate students in transportation and for the best two Ph.D. dissertations for gradutate students in transportation. Burton will receive $1,500 and Brown will receive $2,000. Burton’s award is given annually to the top non-thesis project/report/paper submitted by a transportation student from a CUTC member college or university. The award comes with a $1,500 stipend. “This is really an outstanding achievement for our students and UCLA,” said Urban Planning Associate Professor and Department Vice Chair Brian Taylor. “We have had past winners, but the fact that we have three winners this year, representing both the M.A. and Ph.D. programs, shows the overall strength of our students and of the Department of Urban Planning,” said Taylor, who is also director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. The title of Rogers’ winning M.A. thesis is, “Measuring Social Equity of Public Transit Finance: A Synthesis and Reinterpretation of the Literature.” She is currently employed as a transportation planner for Crain & Associates, a private consulting firm in Southern California. While a student at UCLA, Rogers received the California Planning Foundation Continuing and Graduating Student Award. Burton’s winning M.A. paper is titled, “Culver City Rapid Bus: An Evaluation of Bus Rapid Transit on Culver City Bus’ Line 6.” She is currently employed as a Management Analyst for the Culver City Transportation Department. While a student at UCLA, Burton received the departmental Julie Roque Fellowship, given annually to an outstanding student interested in environmental planning issues. Brown’s dissertation is titled, “The Numbers Game: The Politics of the Federal Surface Transportation Program.” He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. While a graduate student at UCLA, he was the recipient of many awards including the prestigious Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship for 2002-2003; the Outstanding University of California Transportation Student for 2001-2002; an Eno Foundation Fellow in 2000-2001; and a Eugene Cota Robles Fellowship recipient in 1998-1999. As an M.A. graduate of the department, Brown received the Dean’s Award for Overall Excellence in 1998. He also won the Wootan Thesis Award in 1999. The Council of University Transportation Centers, a not-for-profit corporation based in Tennessee, was established in 1979 by the major transportation research centers and institutes in the United States. The organization promotes and continued dialogue among its member institutions, and provides a forum for the centers to interact collectively with government and industry. CUTC’s membership represents more than 60 of the nation’s leading university-based transportation and education programs. Contact: Stan Paul (310-206-8966) paul@sppsr.ucla.edu