Profile

Otto Anker Nielsen is professor in Transport Modelling and head of the Transport Division at DTU Management, Department of Technology, Management and Economics.

He has participated in numerous projects concerning transport modelling, road pricing, transport project planning, public transport, use of geographical information system, and development of methods and software within the field of transport.

Other information

Has participated in a number of EU-projects as project leader, Danish team-manager, international leader of work-packages, as well as member of scientific committees for European projects. Has co-operated with researchers from – among others - Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, USA, Israel, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Participate in a number of international and Nordic research networks. Has been visiting professor at University of Montreal and TUDelft (the latter for a one-year period). Has given lectures in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Greenland, England, Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Chile, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Has organised several Nordic and International conferences and is editor on two international books.

Language Skills:
English

Research areas

Otto Anker Nielsen (OAN) has 27 years of research experience and applied work experience in the field of transport modelling and transport behaviour research, including research in all modes of transport, passenger as well as freight transport, and various scales of modelling from local transport to international and intercontinental models. OAN has participated in – and managed - a large number research projects and public sector support projects. He was member of the Congestion Commission appointed by the Danish Minister for Transport 2013-1014, member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, and recently appointed by the Minister of Transport to an expert group who advise on transport of the future, including impacts of electrification, automation, shared economy and mobility of a service in the transport sector. He has also been member of various other commissions and committees within the Transport Sector, including the Danish Transport Safety Commission, the Danish Road Rule Board, the railway complaint committee and “Altingets” transport policy network.

OAN has been leading several large-scale transports modelling projects in Denmark and at EU level over the period from 1994 until now, and in total more than 55 projects in the field of transport. He has received and led 30 grants the last five years with a total budget of 9.5 million Euro. He is head of the Transport Modelling Division at DTU Management Engineering, and head of the inter-departmental centre covering Transport broadly across DTU.

OAN has had key roles in the development of the OTM model since the mid 1990’ies, the Copenhagen-Ringsted Model, the National Transport Model - particularly the route choice models, and was consortium leader of the European TransTools model, that was just finalised. He has lead several research projects on transport modelling, including a project for the Danish Road Directorate on bicyclists route choice and the ongoing IPTOP project on Integrated Public Transport Optimisation and Planning, which results will be utilised in the bicycle and public transport sub-parts of the present project. He was also leader of the road assignment part of the ACTUM project, which forms the methodological basis of the road assignment models in the present project.

OAN has been advisor for the Swedish and Norwegian Transport Models, and member of many scientific evaluation committees for PhD-students and/or faculty members in the field of transport modelling in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherland, France, England and Scotland. He is frequently invited speaker at international and national conferences and events.

OAN is member of several scientific committees for international conferences, member of editorial boards and referee on international ISI journals. He has been chair of the methodological innovation committee for the European Transport Conference (ETC) for a 3-year period. He has been/is supervisor for 25 PhD-students, mainly in the domain of transport modelling, hereof 14 since 2010, 8 visiting PhD-students and more than 100 MSc thesis projects and about 70 BSc-thesis, and he is responsible for several of DTUs Transport courses. Member of several Danish advisory boards and committees for specific applied projects and public sector support tasks.