Patricia Mokhtarian Honored with IEMS Distinguished Alumni Award

Northwestern Engineering’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS) honored Patricia Mokhtarian (MS ’77, PhD ’81) with the 2026 IEMS Distinguished Alumni Award during an October 2 ceremony on the Evanston campus. 

The award was presented at the Distinguished Alumni Luncheon held in conjunction with the department's Advisory Board meeting. The luncheon brought together Advisory Board members, IEMS faculty, and students to celebrate Mokhtarian’s achievements and legacy.

A Regents Professor and the Clifford and William Greene Jr. Professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mokhtarian has spent more than 40 years studying travel behavior, including how telecommuting, technology, and land use shape the way people move. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, she has authored or co-authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and received the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mokhtarian was recognized as an outstanding ambassador of IEMS excellence, honored for her pioneering career and internationally recognized contributions to transportation systems and travel behavior. As a doctoral student, she bridged IEMS and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering under the guidance of her adviser, Professor Emeritus Frank Koppelman, and dissertation committee member Professor Emeritus Joseph L. Schofer. Since that time, her career path has continued to exemplify the collaborative, interdisciplinary strength of Northwestern Engineering.

In her acceptance remarks, she highlighted her formative mentorship by sharing preserved typewritten course notes from former IEMS Professor Erhan Çınlar, pointing to his early emphasis on the art of rigorous, effective writing as a lifelong lesson she carries with her to this day.

Mokhtarian earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Florida State University, and then a master’s degree and PhD from Northwestern in industrial engineering and management sciences.

The department has honored 29 distinguished alumni since 2002.