I received the heartbreaking news that Professor Hani S. Mahmassani, a superstar in transportation science and operations research, passed away on July 15, 2025, from his colleague, Northwestern University Professor Karen Smilowitz. It is truly hard to process that this brilliant scholar and dear friend has passed away. I am sure that many tributes and special memorials will follow but I had to take the time to write my reflection.
Karen also shared with me the following official message:
NUTC is greatly saddened to share the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Hani Mahmassani, William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center at Northwestern University. Dr. Mahmassani passed away this morning, July 15, 2025, at 7:15 AM CDT at Northwestern Memorial Hospital following a sudden cardiac arrest. He was 69 years old.
Dr. Mahmassani was an outstanding and internationally renowned leader of transportation science and logistic community. During his long and prolific career, spanning more than four decades, Hani made significant contributions to transportation science in various fields: from dynamic network modeling and optimization, to traffic flow theory, intelligent transportation systems, dynamic vehicle routing, travel behavior, decision theory, and logistics systems design. Hani is a member of the National Academies of Engineering, arguably the highest professional honor an engineer can receive. Hani was an exceptional mentor who advised more than 75 doctoral students, many of whom now hold positions on top universities worldwide, showing his high commitment to developing future leaders in transportation.
Dr. Mahmassani will be remembered by all as a dedicated and enthusiastic member of the transportation community, and our hearts go out to all his friends, family and academic colleagues, particularly his sons Amine and Ziad and his brothers Ghaleb, Maher and Malek.
Information regarding a celebration of life service for Dr. Mahmassani will be shared in the coming weeks.
Hani I have known for decades and I have served on multiple prize committees with him and have engaged in many special activities, which he initiated, as a super dynamic thought leader and innovator. He had served as the Editor in Chief of the flagship journal Transportation Science, a position that Karen Smilowitz now holds.
Last year, I nominated Hani for INFORMS Fellow and, at the INFORMS Fellows Luncheon in Seattle last October, we celebrated his election, along with 11 other inductees, including Grazia Speranza and Celso Ribeiro, with whom I already shared the very sad news. Hani had been earlier elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) but was thrilled to become an INFORMS Fellow and the announcement below appears on the NU Transportation Center's webpage.
Below are photos taken at the INFORMS Fellows luncheon in Seattle. Hani was presented with his award plaque by then INFORMS President Julie Swann. In the group photo Hani is with Celso Ribeiro, Grazia Speranza, Janny Leung, who chaired the Fellows selection committee, and me. I saw Celso, Grazia, and Janny recently at the EURO Conference in Leeds.
Hani had also been recognized by the INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Society with the Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award. Robert Herman had been his mentor when he was at UT Austin, after receiving his PhD from MIT.
Hani was incredibly generous with his time and support of scholars as well as practitioners. For example, he even agreed to serve on the Stella Dafermos Mid-Career Award (inaugural) committee that I chaired and I blogged about that experience https://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2022/10/congratulations-to-niels-agatz-on-his.html. Stella had been my PhD advisor at Brown University and was a friend of Hani's. She passed away at age 49 in 1990. Neils Agatz was the first recipient of this award.
In 2018, I had the great pleasure of speaking at the Smart Cities Analytics Workshop at Western University in Canada with Hani and others that I am sure that some of my readers will recognize:
I blogged about the great experience: https://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2018/10/smart-cities-analytics-terrific.html
In my lecture slides of my Transportation & Logistics class I have photos of Hani and in my Humanitarian Logistics & Healthcare class I speak about his great work on evacuation networks. Hani was an incredible thought leader, who regularly appeared in the media, and who mentored so many scholars and students.
I remember fondly the events that he organized at Northwestern University, including the event on the publication of the book "Forecasting Urban Travel," co-authored by David Boyce and Huw Williams, which I was honored to take part in; see https://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2015/10/fabulous-launch-of-forecasting-urban.html and also the outstanding event - a Network Design Symposium in honor of Martin Beckmann (who was on my PhD committee): https://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-transportation-symposium.html
And, in 2005, at the INFORMS meeting in San Francisco, David Boyce and I organized 2 sessions in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Studies in the Economics of Transportation, and the photo below was taken after the sessions. Beckmann and McGuire were present, along with their spouses. Winsten had passed away the year before. Hani is on the far left in the photo.
Hani was also the Editor in Chief of Transportation Science when Dietrich Braess, Tina Wakolbinger and I published the translation of the famous Braess paradox (1968) paper from German to English along with a preface by David Boyce and me on how Braess came up with the idea. See: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/trsc.1050.0127 and https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/trsc.1050.0126
And I am so pleased that Hani, David Boyce and I published the following article together: http://www.civil.northwestern.edu/docs/Boyce/retrospective_on_beckman.pdf
Below is a photo of Hani and the rest of the award committee, including me, when Michael Florian received the Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award, back in 1998. With us is Marius Solomon, who has since passed away, Mark Daskin, Gilbert Laporte, and Teo Crainic.
Thank you, Hani, for your outstanding contributions, your selflessness, generosity, great wisdom and knowledge, and kindness and for all the memories. Your legacy will live on through all those who were blessed to have had you in their lives and through your outstanding scientific work.
And Sobhi Mahmassani, a nephew of Hani's, was a student in my Transportation and Logistics class at the Isenberg School of Management and an OM major!
Deepest condolences to Hani's family, friends, students (present and past) and to all the colleagues around the world!
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