SPP’s Kenneth Button Receives Rare Transportation Research Award

In addition to his full-time teaching post at SPP, and visiting professorships at the universities of Bologna and Porto, Button serves as Director of the Center for Transportation Policy Operations and Logistics (TPOL), edits two of the top transportation journals in the world, has written or edited more than 60 books, published more than 400 papers and articles, spoken at transportation events worldwide and chaired numerous committees.

Currently, he is researching about transportation security issues for the Department of Justice, trying to figure out how the airlines should finance air traffic control and looking at ways that transportation can assist in economic development. In addition, he is finishing a book on telecommunications and transport.

Pagano took particular notice of Button’s research and writing achievements in his speech: “This year’s honoree has spent a lifetime conducting research, writing books and articles, and consulting with governments and businesses around the world. He is a prolific writer, having authored, co-authored or edited 61 separate books, with many more on the way… He seems to write faster than most people read.”

Button’s research covers many areas of transportation economics, including transportation and the environment, land use and urban policy, logistics and supply chain management, maritime transportation, air transport, transportation regulation and most recently, transportation security.

It’s difficult to comprehend how he accomplishes so much, and Button jokes that he writes his books during plane rides, edits his journals in hotel rooms and grades student papers in bars. “Organization is the key thing in life. I figured that out when I was young, and it has served me well.”

Despite his mind-boggling achievements, Button claims that he is not driven by a love for his work. “I never get passionate about anything. It’s very dangerous,” he says, later adding, “It pays me. I’m a rational economic person. I’m an economist.”

Although he denies having any emotional attachments to his profession, Button does admit to feeling proud of some of his accomplishments. For example, several of his economic predictions have come true, he says. In 1996, he predicted that the then profitable U.S. airlines would eventually begin losing money. In the late 80s, he made similar predictions in England, claiming that bus privatization would lead to less competitive markets. “Any human being likes to be proven right,” Button says, adding that he also gets satisfaction out of providing a public service.

Button also likes to brag about his journals. “Transportation Research D: Transportation and the Environment,” which he launched in 1996, has grown to become the top cited journal of its kind in the country. “It’s a crucial topic…The environment is of vital importance and transportation causes a lot of environmental problems,” he says.

He also took over the once flailing “Journal of Air Transportation Management” in 1997. Since then, it has become a top journal on the topic, with more than 40,000 downloads of papers a year, he says.

Button tries to instill his dedication to scholarship into his students at Mason. “I try to impart that knowledge is important and that they need to be selective in how they use that knowledge,” says Button, a native of England who has taught at universities in Portugal, the Netherlands, Canada, Italy and England

He adds, “The other thing I try to do is to get students to appreciate old-fashioned scholarship. I try to teach them that instead of going for their gut reactions, they need to take a longer-term view of the world and not jump to premature conclusions.”