Mark Hansen

Mark Hansen is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, serving as Berkeley co-director of the FAA-sponsored National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR).

Education:

• Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 1988
• M.C.P. in City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, 1984
• B.A. in Physics and Philosophy, Yale University, 1980

His research spans urban transportation planning, air transport systems modeling, air traffic flow management, aviation performance analysis, safety, environmental impacts, and economics. Key contributions address fuel efficiency in aviation, flight delay cost quantification, and high-speed rail forecasting reliability, bridging theoretical modeling with real-world policy applications in transportation networks.

Scientific Awards:

• Horonjeff Award (1985) for air transport research
• Best Paper Award at ICRAT (2024)

Professor Hansen directs $227,000 in active research funding including a $54,000 Delta Airlines/ICCT project on fuel loading behavior, a $104,000 FAA study on cargo flight delay costs, and a $69,000 NASA behavioral analysis of flight rerouting. His NEXTOR leadership coordinates multi-university aviation research with the Federal Aviation Administration.

NEXTOR serves as the primary research consortium under his co-direction, focusing on aviation system resilience and performance optimization through collaborative federal-university partnerships.