Photo courtesy of Jianyuan Xu
Note: This article is from ITE (an international membership association of transportation professionals), which spotlighted Division of Traffic Operations’ Jianyuan Xu being selected as a 2025 ITE Young Leader to Follow.
Jianyuan Xu is a standout young professional whose commitment to advancing the transportation industry through technical excellence, leadership, and service makes him a young leader to recognize.
Currently a transportation engineer at the Transportation System Analysis Branch of Office of Mobility & System Performance with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Jianyuan brings a rare combination of academic depth, practical experience, and organizational involvement that has already shaped regional and national transportation efforts.
Jianyuan recently earned his doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), where he also served as president of the UNR ITE Student Chapter (2022–2024). Under his leadership, the Chapter flourished—organizing technical events, fostering student engagement, and earning notable placements in the ITE Mountain District Student Traffic Bowl (second place in 2024, fourth in 2023).
His leadership helped students connect with professional networks and inspired continued involvement in ITE after graduation.
Professionally, Jianyuan has led and supported numerous impactful traffic engineering initiatives, from signal retiming and intersection studies to traffic calming and operational performance evaluation using simulation tools and crowdsourced data. At Caltrans, he leads statewide efforts in multimodal transportation system analysis training, research, guidance, traffic simulation workshop, transportation system improvement program, intersection safety and operational assessment process program, and local development-intergovernmental review program.
Jianyuan is an active ITE member at the international level. He currently serves on the Younger Member Committee and is a reviewer for ITE Journal and ITE’s 2025 International Annual Meeting. He was recognized in ITE’s “Young Member Monday” spotlight and continues to promote student-to-professional transitions through ITE’s Young Member Roundtables.
His research excellence has been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2024 TRB ACP20 Student Research Challenge (first place), 2024 and 2022 ITE Mountain District Daniel B. Fambro Student Paper Awards, the 2023 ITE Mountain District Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the 2024 Sinha Prize for Best Paper in ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, and the 2025 ITE Western District Best Annual Meeting Paper by a Young Professional Award.
Through every endeavor, Jianyuan Xu exemplifies the passion, intellect, and drive that defines a true young leader in transportation.