John Bell, associate professor of supply chain management at the Haslam College of Business, was recently named the 2015-16 fellow for the Center for Transportation Research in UT’s College of Engineering.

The center seeks to foster a community of researchers and educators at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who are committed to improving all aspects of transportation. The fellowship will allow Bell to further pursue research on efficient vehicle routing and transportation management.

Bell is exploring different routing algorithms that track demand patterns across the United States. “This work is aimed at reducing fuel costs and improving transportation delivery times for highly variable commercial delivery routes,” Bell said.

This is the second year that a member of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Haslam has received the fellowship. Last year, Mary Holcomb received the award.

David Clarke, the center’s director, uses the expertise of fellows to inform the research direction of the center. “John Bell was selected to help facilitate communication between people involved in supply chain management and transportation,” Clarke said. “Engineers need to understand the demands supply chain makes on transportation in order to accommodate these demands in the best possible ways.”

Bell was chosen based on his current research and experience addressing civil engineering students on transportation.

“Several of our faculty have been working with colleagues in civil engineering and industrial and systems engineering on important supply chain, logistics and transportation problems,” Bell said. “In the end, our combined team should be able to accomplish more effective and insightful research in this manner.”