Janusz Supernak, PhD - A brief biography
- Janusz Supernak is Full Professor and Interim Chair at the Department of Civil, Environmental Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. He received his MS and PhD degrees from Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland. His academic appointments include: State University of New York at Buffalo, NY; Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA and since 1984 - San Diego State University. He was Visiting Professor at BOKU University in Vienna, Austria and Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland. Between 1992-2010 he served as Chair of the department that was transformed during his tenure from Civil Engineering to the current Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering.
- Janusz Supernak's research interests are in the general area of Transportation Engineering. They are: travel demand analysis, intelligent transportation systems, transportation economics, and transportation safety. He is author of over 100 publications: refereed journal articles, conference proceedings and research reports. His Google Scholar h-index is 13. He presented his research results at 26 universities; among them are: Oxford University, Kyoto University, Delft University of Technology, Nanyang University, University of British Columbia, Hong Kong University, Andhra University, and Indian University of Technology, Chennai. His current research focus is congestion pricing and managed lanes, activity and travel interactions, and pedestrian safety. He obtained over $4 million in external grants. He is a member of several national and international professional organizations and a SDSU representative of the Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences.
- Professor Supernak has taught several undergraduate and graduate courses in Transportation Engineering and Planning as well as Engineering Economy, and Statistics. In 2011 he won the Most Influential Professor Award for his teaching. For the last 20 years, he has been Faculty Advisor the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. During that period, his students received several national awards for their Chapter's activities. Dr. Supernak also received both national and local awards for his work as Faculty Advisor. Since 2011, he has also been Faculty Advisor for the Student Chapter of Institute of Transportation Engineers at San Diego State University. He is the 2014 Engineering Educator of the Year in San Diego County and 2014 Outstanding Faculty Advisor of the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
- Dr. Supernak's experience outside academia include: site engineer on a bridge construction (Poland), civil engineering designer (UK), and transportation researcher at a research institute (Germany, Poland). He occasionally performs consulting work in his area. He pioneered the Study Abroad program for Engineering students at SDSU, and successfully led six editions of the Summer Semester program in Krakow, Poland.
- Dr. Supernak is active in serving his profession and the community at large. He is President of San Diego - Warsaw & Mazovia Province Sister City Society. He is also a member of several other civic organizations. His passion is music: for the last 22 years he has been a voluntary organist in his church, and he recorded two award-winning albums with his own songs: those albums are available on iTunes and on Amazon. His song "I Found My Perfect City" won the popular vote in a contest for the best song about San Diego organized by San Diego Magazine and the Sophie Radio Station 103.7. This song has been viewed over 22,000 times on YouTube. His song "My Lullaby" was the title song on the Fryderyk-nominated album recorded by the Polish jazz star Aga Zaryan. Videos with his songs placed on YouTube channels have been viewed over 100,000 times by viewers from over 150 countries. He also enjoys playing table tennis: at the US Open Tournament in Las Vegas in July 2013, he gained 177 rating points finishing with his personal best USATT national rating of 1599.
- Professor Supernak and his wife Iga enjoy living in the beautiful San Diego near the Pacific coast.