public aviation & transportation.

The doctoral specialization in public aviation and transportation provisions a focus on integrated solutions to inter-modal challenges including air, surface, rail, and space transportation components. Through this broad perspective, students will be able to pursue academic programs with emphasis on the public and private sector interface between the airport, fixed-base service provider, air carrier industry, and public regulatory environments while furthering their integration into the overall transportation architecture. A sample of specific research programs by specialization faculty and doctoral students include monitoring the performance of the air carrier industry, aviation infrastructure assessment and planning, spaceport commercialization, aviation safety policy, GIS-GPS applications in transportation, measuring public organization effectiveness, airborne remote-sensing with emphasis on applications for Native American land management, and aviation security.

Doctoral students in this program have focused in areas of transportation policy and urban planning, geospatial applications in transportation, public sector research methodologies, aviation safety, transportation fiscal issues, space transportation and administration, and aviation policy. Through the School of Public Administration, UNO offers the only Ph.D. with an aviation administration specialization in the country and is one of the first institutions to focus on transportation at the national level with specific application to aviation and space policy. This degree program will provide students with a terminal degree in research & theory development. It will focus upon developing a student's ability to conduct research and engage in theoretical reflection with applications to industry and public sector practice. This will be accomplished while also providing the necessary preparation for application and long-term contribution in the academic community. Upon the completion of a prescribed plan of study, a transcript notation of the aviation administration and/or transportation specialization will be recorded.

Faculty

Brent Bowen, Professor (Ed.D., Oklahoma State University), teaches in the area of research methods with an emphasis on advanced qualitative designs in addition to areas of aviation administration and policy. His research interests focus on aviation applications of public productivity enhancement and service quality evaluation, aviation policy, and safety assessment. Dr. Bowen has been an invited expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Operations and has served on multiple occasions as an invited speaker and panelist at the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board. Dr. Bowen's research on the development of the national Airline Quality Rating is viewed by more the 50 million people each year and is regularly featured on the network evening news shows, and in numerous national and international media, as well as refereed academic publications. Dr. Bowen served on the National Research Council Steering Group on the Small Aircraft Transportation System, and was named by the FAA Administrator to a National Academy of Science study group on airspace optimization. Prior to his academic career, Prof. Bowen owned and operated an airport services firm which included a regional air carrier operation.

John Bartle, Professor (PhD, The Ohio State University), is the Director of the School of Public Administration. He has published in a variety of journals on topics such as transportation finance, infrastructure policy, intergovernmental relations, local government taxation, procurement and contracting, and cutback management. He is the editor of the book, Evolving Theories of Public Budgeting. He worked in state and local government, as well as for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C., and has been a consultant for federal, state and local government agencies. He has been active in research on the economic feasibility and financing options for the SATS program, as well as financing options for highways.

Ken Kriz, Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Indiana University-Bloomington), teaches in the areas of public financial management and policy, economics, and statistics. His research focuses on municipal debt management, economic development policy and transportation finance, along with the use of alternative estimation techniques in public finance. He has worked in the public sector as a U.S. Navy supply officer and has consulted with several public and nonprofit organizations on financial and economic issues. Professor Kriz has also had experience in the private sector financial services industry. He is a frequent presenter at budgeting and financial management conferences and has published papers in the areas of municipal bond issuance, revenue limitation initiatives, and tax increment financing.

Massoum Mousavi, Associate Professor (Ph.D., Virginia Tech), is on the civil engineering faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has sixteen years of experience in teaching, research, and consulting in transportation engineering. Dr. Moussavi's research interests include transportation planning, economics, systems analysis; mass transit systems planning and design; airport planning and design; systems engineering, and traffic engineering. Dr. Moussavi is a member of several professional organizations such as ASCE, ITE, TRB, etc., and he is registered professional engineer in Nebraska and Tennessee.

Scott Tarry, Associate Professor (University of Michigan), is the Director of UNO's Aviation Institute and of NASA Nebraska Space Grant and EPSCoR. He teaches in the areas of airport administration and aviation and transportation policy. He currently serves on the SATS Transportation Systems Assessment and Analysis Working Group and his work for the group focuses on air transport in rural areas. Dr. Tarry has published articles in a number of journals including Policy Studies Journal, Public Works Management and Policy, Transportation Journal, and the Journal of Air Law and Commerce. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Section of Transportation Policy and Administration for the American Society for Public Administration and is Program Chair for the Transportation Research Forum's Annual Meeting. He has recently served as a Faculty Research Fellow at NASA's Langley Research Center where he conducted research on the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) initiative. In addition to his ongoing research on airports and air transport infrastructure, he is currently studying the impact SATS might have on air transportation for rural and isolated communities.

For more information on the Aviation program, visit: ai.unomaha.edu.