Rate My Professor Monica Menendez

Monica Menendez is a Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi and a Global Network Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering at the Tandon School of Engineering, New York University. She directs the Research Center for Interacting Urban Networks (CITIES) at NYU Abu Dhabi as Lead Principal Investigator. Her research focuses on monitoring, modeling, and control of multimodal transportation systems, incorporating new technologies and data sources. Menendez obtained her PhD and MSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. She holds a dual degree in Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering from the University of Miami, earned Summa Cum Laude in 2002. Before joining NYU Abu Dhabi, she served as Director of the Traffic Engineering research group at ETH Zurich from 2010 to 2017 and worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company.

Menendez has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications and more than 200 conference contributions, book chapters, editorials, and technical reports. Key publications include 'Effects of HOV lanes on freeway bottlenecks' in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological (2007), 'Understanding traffic capacity of urban networks' in Scientific Reports (2019), 'Multi-scale perimeter control approach in a connected-vehicle environment' in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies (2018), 'Implementing design and operational measures for sustainable mobility: Lessons from Zurich' in Sustainability (2022), and 'Understanding congestion propagation by combining percolation theory with the macroscopic fundamental diagram' in Communications Physics (2023). Five of her co-authored papers have received best-paper awards in the last five years. She earned the NYU Abu Dhabi Distinguished Research Award in 2021, NSF Fellowship, Gordon F. Newell Award, and more than 20 scholarships and awards from professional societies and universities. Menendez reviews for over 20 journals, serves on editorial boards of top transportation journals, and holds memberships in the International Advisory Committee of the International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory and the Mohammed bin Rashid Academy of Scientists. Her contributions include comprehensive reviews of urban traffic flows using data from 2.3 billion vehicles and the largest multi-city traffic dataset from 40 cities worldwide, advancing traffic modeling, management, and sustainable urban mobility.