Christopher P.L. Barkan holds a B.A. (Goddard College 1977) in Liberal Arts; and M.S. (SUNY Albany 1984) and Ph.D. degrees (SUNY Albany 1987) in Biology. He has been on the faculty of the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois since 1998. He conducted research on the application of stochastic optimization models to ecological processes as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Environmental Research Center prior to joining the AAR Research and Test Department in 1988, where he worked until coming to the University of Illinois.

Dr. Barkan has principal responsibility for the railroad engineering research and academic programs. This includes coordination of the railroad research activities of more than 20 faculty and understanding the technical aspects of their research and its practical application by railroads. He has teaching responsibilities in the area of railroad technology and engineering and has responsibility for oversight and development of the university's railroad engineering academic program. He has extensive contacts in the railroad and railroad supply industries as well as among the railroad regulatory agencies in both the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Barkan also serves as the director of the Association of American Railroads' Affiliated Laboratory at the University of Illinois and maintains frequent contact, coordination and collaboration with the railroad research staff at the Transportation Technology Center Inc. in Pueblo, Colo., and with the Safety & Operations staff at the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Dr. Barkan has been a member of the Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation of Hazardous Materials since 1993 and was recently appointed to membership on the Committee on Railroad Track Structure System Design.

Prior to assuming his current position at UIUC, Dr. Barkan was Director of Risk Engineering in the Safety and Operations Division of the AAR, and held a similar position before that in the AAR's Research & Test Department. In these positions he had principal responsibility for directing the railroad industry's research programs on risk analysis, tank car and hazardous materials transportation safety, and railroad pollution prevention & environmental technologies. At Illinois, Dr. Barkan continues to serve on behalf of the AAR, as the Deputy Project Director of the RPI-AAR Railroad Tank Car Safety Research and Test Project, a cooperative program of the tank car and railroad industries studying ways to improve tank car safety.

Dr. Barkan is an author or editor of more than two dozen papers, reports or books on railroad hazardous materials, tank car safety and environmental subjects.