An expert in highway interchange design, Dixon was not immediately drawn to teaching or engineering. In high school, she was an excellent student both in math and science, a juxtaposition that led the two department heads to arrange for Dixon to attend an engineering workshop at Texas Tech.

"I had no idea what an engineer was before that," Dixon says. "I looked at all of the disciplines and I decided that if I were to design something, I wanted to be able to see it. If you are in industry and you design a cog for an engine, that may be very efficient, but you are not really responsible for the whole. I wanted to be able to drive on the road I had designed."

After earning her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University in 1983, Dixon went to work for a small engineering firm in Texas doing residential neighborhood and commercial development design, including the planning of the roadways, drainage and utilities.

Dixon worked on a major interchange in Fort Worth and the Broadway Curve on Interstate 10 in Arizona, where the traffic from Phoenix and Tempe converge. After finishing the Arizona project, the company wanted Dixon to transfer to its headquarters in Los Angeles. But she and her husband Ron decided they would move to an area where both could pursue master's degrees — his in public health and hers in civil engineering. Dixon got a consulting job in North Carolina so the couple moved to Raleigh. Dixon earned her master's and doctorate at N.C. State University.

Recently Dixon finished co-authoring a textbook, "Highway Engineering, Seventh Edition" with Tech professor emeritus Paul H. Wright.

Through her research, Dixon is also having an impact on transportation issues at the regional, state and national levels.

Through Georgia Department of Transportation support, Dixon is conducting research at "smart work zones" on interstates using sensors to measure traffic density and speed and calculate how they could affect traffic flow. The information is then transmitted via computer to traffic advisory signs located over interstates in metro Atlanta.

"Through that data and driver surveys, we can determine whether that information broadcast on the advisory signs makes a difference in traffic flow," she says.

On the national level, Dixon is working with the Federal Highway Administration on a program to develop speed models of low-speed urban streets in order to design safer roadways.

©2004 Georgia Tech Alumni Association