Celebrating the Extraordinary Career of Joseph Schofer
While retirement signals the end of a career, it can also precede a new beginning. Joseph Schofer, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, has been teaching at Northwestern University since 1970, and over that extensive career, he has served as a leader, mentor to countless students and faculty, and as an intellectual cornerstone in the civil engineering domain. He has lived through a lot of history, impacted many lives, and made a lot of friends, and now’s a good time to look back and reflect on this storied career.
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Joseph Schofer's research and teaching focuses on how decisions about transportation and other infrastructure systems are made, and how they might be made better, including the use of data and information, how to communicate that information, and the importance of learning from experience and natural experiments. His research, professional service, and writing have addressed transportation policy, finance, and choices that affect the resilience of transportation systems. He has worked and continues to work with public sector transportation agency leaders across the U.S.
In 2011, Schofer received the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award for outstanding achievement in transportation research from the Transportation Research Board (TRB), and in 2014 he was selected as TRB’s Thomas B. Deen lecturer, named after Tom Deen former executive director of that organization.
A teacher at heart
When asked what he considers his greatest achievement, however, Schofer believes that his connection to his former students is his most fulfilling accomplishment.
“I worked with a lot of students over the years, and I watched them grow and I watched them go,” he said. “I watched them go out into the transportation profession that they learned about here at Northwestern, and they accomplish a lot, they have a big impact and spread across the country. To a large extent I have been able to stay in touch with them. There are people that go back maybe decades and I’m in regular contact with them; they're there for me and I'm there for them.”
Often, Schofer is asked why he maintains a relationship with his former students.
“It’s a joy by association,” he said. “They’re like my own kids. They took ideas from our interaction and now other people look at them and say ‘Wow, he knows a lot of stuff!’ and I can sit there quietly and think, ‘He knows a lot of stuff because we spent a lot of time together when he was at Northwestern.’”
Schofer has always been immersed in the world of civil engineering. From an early age, he would accompany his father – a civil engineer – on local trips to proposed sites for new roads and bridges.
“I had an engineer in the house and for a while, during the summers I would tag along with him on local trips, and I just listened,” he said. “I absorbed a lot, and it became second nature to me. I do a lot of that now with my students and family. I tend to be the one to say, ‘slow down and look at this, let’s figure out how this works.’”
Schofer is preparing for his retirement by continuing his tradition of staying connected. When the 2023 Spring quarter concluded, Schofer wrote every student he taught a thank-you note with the message to stay connected.
Becoming an educator was something Schofer aspired to when he was an undergraduate, finding that he really valued the mission and work lifestyle of his own professors.
“I had some teachers who really made a difference for me,” he said. “I knew the senior faculty in my department, and they knew me. I spent time in their offices having conversations with them and being there when they were having conversations with others. To me, it looked like they had a rewarding life – little did I realize that, like ducks in a pond, on the surface they were sailing along smoothly, but underneath they were paddling like crazy. University faculty work hard, and they have been quoted as saying, ‘It’s vacation time, Now I can work!’”
Schofer enjoyed being immersed in a scholarly bubble at Northwestern, often surrounded by people who are at the top of their game, excited about their work, and driven by curiosity.
“We’re all volunteers here, doing what we really want to do, and sharing the excitement with our students.”
Over the years, he has come to appreciate his many colleagues at the McCormick School of Engineering and their vast complexities.
“You have this impression that some engineers are very narrowly focused, but you’d be surprised how much our engineers know about history and art,” he said. “I’d be willing to bet you that the average engineering faculty knows more about the social sciences, economics, and history than the average humanities professor knows about physics, chemistry, or engineering. To get a degree in engineering, at Northwestern and other top-quality schools, you must have a broad base, you cannot just take engineering courses.”
A lifelong learner
For Schofer, an interest in a variety of topics has served him well.
“I had a bunch of jobs as a junior professional – a lot of summer jobs that were significant in drawing me into this field,” he said. “I was always looking for something different, but there is something special about the academic world where you have a lot of choices. There is a kind of freedom of operation that has high value.”
As a college student, Schofer worked for a summer at the agency that planned the Washington, DC Metro rail rapid transit system, where his boss was Tom Deen. In the following years, Schofer held more than 60 volunteer committee assignments in TRB – and he continues to do so in retirement.
Recently, Schofer has found a new way to connect with those interested in transportation engineering. Since 2009, Schofer has hosted the podcast The Infrastructure Show, for which he interviews experts on a wide variety of infrastructure topics, talking about why systems exist, how they work, how they are penanced, and what happens when things go wrong.
“This podcast seemed like a good way to educate people about infrastructure issues,” he said, “but secretly, it just gives me a chance to satisfy my own curiosity. I am fortunate to have had some alums and friends help cover the recording costs.”
The show begins – much like you would with any class – by explaining the very definition of infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is the built environment that supports and enhances life, it includes dams, bridges, roads and rail systems, airports, and much more,” says Schofer on the first episode of the show in 2009. “It is the visible and invisible backbone of the country’s civilization.”
Much of Schofer’s livelihood has been defined by this definition. In turn, he has built his own bridge in uniting us in our understanding of this extremely important concept.
Preparing for the future
After all these years, Schofer has seen many changes in the field of civil engineering, particularly at the academic level.
“The proportion of women in engineering is much bigger,” he said. “I can walk into a classroom now and more than half the students are women, and I can look at the leadership across [Northwestern] and see that women are represented.”
Another thing that has changed is that engineers are now being trained more broadly, Schofer said.
“I had a brilliant student in transportation and after she graduated, she went to law school,” he said. “[Northwestern] students are trained broadly enough that they have choices when they walk out the door.”
Although he is retiring from teaching, Schofer still intends to work. He is a member of several committees, including the Chicago Transit Authority Capital Advisory Committee, the Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council (Chicago), and the Transportation Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. He is also on the Board of Advisors for the Institute for Transportation Studies at the Univ. of California, Davis, and is a member of the Transportation Research Board.
Schofer is an essential part of these revolutionary committees, and much like in the classroom, he finds joy in connecting with people and facilitating important conversations.
“I’m pretty good at bringing people together and getting them focused on a topic,” he said. “Even people who are not compatible, I can bring them together.”
Joseph Schofer has had an incredible career as both an engineer and professor at Northwestern. Although he has discovered much through his study and research Schofer feels that his greatest discovery has been the people he met, taught, coached, and encouraged.