In recognition of his outstanding service to transportation research and to the Transportation Research Board, Harold R. (Skip) Paul is the 2013 recipient of the W.N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award. Paul is the director of the Louisiana Transportation Research Center, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. The Carey Award, named in honor of W.N. Carey, Jr., the Board's executive director from 1967 to 1980, recognizes individuals who have given leadership and distinguished service to TRB.
Paul has served TRB tirelessly for more than 25 years in a variety of roles. The consummate TRB state representative, he has long been the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development's voice in TRB and a key contributor to the Board's strong continuing partnership with the states, both in that role and through his leadership on the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Research Advisory Committee (RAC) and Standing Committee on Research (SCOR). The two committees work closely with the National Cooperative Highway Research Proram and have benefited from Paul's thoughtful and far-reaching contributions as the current RAC Chair and SCOR Vice-Chair.
Paul has served as a member or chair of more than 30 TRB councils, groups, sections, committees, panels and task forces. As chair of the Division A Council, now the Technical Activities Council, from 1999 to 2002, he initiated the effort that led to the reorganization of TRB's standing technical committees and task forces into the current 11-group functional and modal structure. The enhanced structure has been credited with creating a new synergy among the groups, enabling the standing committees to address a wider variety of transportation research issues. In 2001, Paul was named a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies.
