Prairie View A&M First HBCU to Lead University Transportation Center

Updated on February 27, 2023

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The U.S. Department of Transportation will give Prairie View A&M in Texas $20 million over five years to lead the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation.

Signage at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, U.S., on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Prairie View A&M University's president Ruth Simmons, one of higher education's most prominent Black leaders, is using her clout and connections and the current U.S. reckoning with systemic racism to create a renaissance at a school long neglected by its state. Photographer: Brandon Thibodeaux/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Credit: Image Credit: Brandon Thibodeaux / Bloomberg / Getty Images

The center will be the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation, which will focus on infrastructure durability.
Prairie View is the first HBCU to lead a national UTC.
The department will award $4 million annually to the center for five years.

Prairie View A&M University in Texas will be the first historically Black college and university (HBCU) to lead a University Transportation Center (UTC).

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s UTC program is designed to tap top colleges and universities to help advance transportation research and technology. Prairie View was selected to lead the National Center for Infrastructure Transformation, focusing on infrastructure durability.

“Prairie View is the first HBCU to lead a national UTC, and we are proud to bring this to Texas, particularly when the national centers have historically been on the East and West coasts,” said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. “This is what can be accomplished when we combine the research expertise of one of our universities with the resources of the A&M System, and this team will achieve a great result for the state of Texas and the nation.”

Prairie View’s center will receive $4 million annually for five years as one of the five awarded national centers.

“Prairie View A&M University’s leadership, expertise, and spirit of innovation will, as the Center’s name suggests, work to transform our nation’s infrastructure over the next five years and beyond,” said Judy Perkins, P.E., who will serve as the center’s director.