UPS Chair of Transportation

Associate Dean for Research
Weitzman School of Design

Associate Professor
Department of City & Regional Planning, Weitzman School of Design
Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, PennEngineering, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Megan S. Ryerson

Dr. Ryerson’s major contributions are in the field of transportation infrastructure planning and demand forecasting. Her work has investigated how airports compete for air service across megaregions, how airlines can reconfigure their disaster planning to achieve more resilient outcomes, and how flights can be planned more proactively to reduce fuel consumption. Overall, her work supports the design of transportation systems that are safe, efficient, and resilient. She expands the pedagogical reach of urban planning, bringing megaregional and intercity transportation more squarely into city and regional planning.

Within Penn, Dr. Ryerson is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a fellow at the Penn Center for Neuroasthetics. Dr. Ryerson is currently partnering with members of CIRP research team to explore transportation access and transportation demand to medical facilities for the elderly and those living with disabilities. She is the Research Director for Mobility21, the University of Pennsylvania's $14M DOT National University Transportation Center. 


Dr. Ryerson is a Governor-appointed member of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Aviation Advisory Committee, and is also a member of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation State Transportation Innovation Council, the Board of Advisors for the Eno Center for Transportation, the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) Philadelphia Chapter, and she was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation and the Governor of Pennsylvania to aviation-related advisory committees. In 2015 Professor Ryerson was named “Woman of the Year” by the WTS Philadelphia Chapter.
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​Dr. Ryerson serves as the major research advisor for Ph.D., Master’s, and undergraduate students and she teaches courses on Intercity Transportation Systems, Advanced Methods for Transportation Systems Analysis, Applied Statistics, and Engineering Economics. Her students have won multiple competitive awards and are professors and practicing planners and engineers employed by organizations including The Ohio State University, WSP, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, AECOM, Nike, and American Airlines.