Megan S. Ryerson, PhD is the UPS Chair of Transportation and an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and an Affiliate Research Scientist at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She was appointed Associate Dean for Research of PennDesign in 2018 and is the Research Director of the Mobility21 Transportation Research Center, a national University Transportation Center (UTC) with partner research sites at Penn, Carnegie Mellon University, and The Ohio State University. 

Through Mobility21, supported by a five-year transportation research grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Dr. Ryerson and her team are committed to examining cross-disciplinary problems such as autonomous vehicles, intercity transportation planning, and pedestrian and bicycle safety to improve accessibility and mobility for specific populations.

Dr. Ryerson is currently partnering with members of the CIRP research team to explore driver training access to improve young driver safety. 

Dr. Ryerson’s major contributions are in the field of transportation infrastructure planning and demand forecasting. Her work has investigated how airports compete for air service across megaregions, how airlines can reconfigure their disaster planning to achieve more resilient outcomes, and how flights can be planned more proactive to reduce fuel consumption. Overall, her work supports the design of transportation systems that are safe, efficient, and resilient. Dr. Ryerson is also focused on expanding the pedagogical reach of urban planning, and focusing on bringing megaregional and intercity transportation more squarely into the field of city and regional planning.

In early 2019, Dr. Ryerson testified to Philadelphia City Council's Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities about the role of electric scooters in safe mobility as the City assesses a bill to legalize scooters on city streets.