Abubakr Ziedan is a Ph.D. candidate in Transportation Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Khartoum and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He also gained a broad and diverse professional experience in transportation engineering before starting his Ph.D., including working in different public transportation agencies in the United States and Sudan. His research focuses on exploring transit ridership trends, transit planning and operations, transit fare policy and technology, and transit equity. He is a recipient of the 2022 William W.Millar award for the best paper in the area of public transportation by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He is also the 2018 recipient of the Donald C. Hyde Memorial Essay Scholarship presented by the American Public Transportation Foundation.

Dan is the Assistant Chief of Freight and Logistics at the Tennessee Department of Transportation. In his role, he provides leadership on issues of rail, water and highway freight. The division serves as a liaison between TDOT and freight stakeholders in an effort to find opportunities to improve access for existing freight and appropriately prepare for the projected increases in freight as it moves in and out of the state. The primary focus areas for the division include water, short-line railroads, Section 130 rail program, rail inspection, highway freight and technology, freight advisory committees and the freight and state rail plan updates.  In April of 2021, he was additionally named Interim Multimodal Transportation Resource Division Director which handles DOT responsibility with all transit in all 95 counties in Tennessee, as well as, bicycle and pedestrian state programs.

He spent his entire career focused in the transportation sector. He is truly multi-modal with his 30 plus year career spanning several modes. He has worked for Federal Express (air), Yellow Freight System (LTL), Union Pacific Railroad (rail), and Comtrak Logistics / Hub Group Trucking  (Intermodal / Truckload). After his private sector experience, he spent 5 years at the Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute at the University of Memphis on various projects relating to freight issues. 

He received his Bachelors from the University of Memphis in transportation and a Masters from the University of Denver in Intermodal Transportation Management.