Dr. Catherine T.  Lawson is Chair of the Department of Geography and Planning, Director of the Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning.  In addition, she is an Affiliated Faculty member of the Department of Informatics, in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Albany – State University of New York.  Her research interests include data science applications for transportation research and planning, including transit, freight, and passenger travel.  As the Director of the Lewis Mumford Center (LMC) at the University at Albany, she established the University at Albany Visualization and Informatics Lab (AVAIL), a “new generation” research lab, specializing in advanced data-driven visualization and informatics. She is a member of AP000 Public Transportation Executive Group, ABJ00 Data Section, and Chair of the new Joint Subcommittee on Transformative Trends in Transit Data.