Road professionals of exception - IRF names top individual award

Dr Kyung-Soo Yoo, an IRF Fellow (Class of 1979) and one of the chief architects behind Korea's world-class road connectivity programs has been nominated to receive IRF's most distinguished individual honour
November 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
South Korea’s roads have benefited in terms of safety in particular from Dr Kyung-Soo Yoo’s influence
Dr Kyung-Soo Yoo, an IRF Fellow (Class of 1979) and one of the chief architects behind Korea's world-class road connectivity programs has been nominated to receive IRF's most distinguished individual honour


Established in 1951, 2462 IRF's Professional of the Year award recognises eminent public, private and education sector professionals with an outstanding track record of leadership and commitment to the road transport industry. Over the years, the award has recognised some of the world's most influential transport leaders for their work in the field of advocacy, policy, research and educational programs in support of better, safer, and more sustainable road networks globally.

An IRF Fellowship Scholar, Dr Kyung-Soo Yoo graduated from Ohio State University in 1980 before returning to the Korea Highway Corporation as a Highway & Traffic Engineer. In 2005, Dr Yoo was appointed to run the Highway & Transportation Technology Institute affiliated to the Korea Highway Corporation. He later took on a series of leadership roles across Korean and International Associations, including the Korea Road Association, the Korea Society of Intelligent Transportation Systems and the 6432 Road Engineering Association of Asia & Australasia. These positions were successively held as Korea grew in the international ranking of countries with the highest performing road system and a continuous record of declining road traffic injuries.

Accepting the award, Dr Yoo stated: "Being an IRF member and receiving an IRF Fellowship has had a positive and dramatic impact on my whole life. With much responsibility, I am honoured to be the 2017 recipient of the IRF Professional of the Year and I will do my best to continue to have a meaningful contribution to the road industry for the rest of my career."

IRF Chairman Eng. Abdullah A Al-Mogbel noted, "The award crowns an exceptional professional whose vision and efforts have contributed significantly to Korea's international standing and strengthened relations with the International Road Federation."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • High fatality rates around the world
    March 13, 2014
    In 2010, global road traffic injuries resulted in 1.3 million deaths and were the eighth leading cause of death, with 90% of fatal injuries taking place in low- and middle-income countries At the root of this crisis in the developing world are persisting managerial and technical capacity weaknesses. For many fast-motorising countries, fragmented legislation, poorly targeted funding, ineffective institutional leadership, and outdated road engineering practices could all translate into failure to meet road
    Read More
  • New IRF president takes up new role
    July 13, 2022
    IRF chose the International Transport Forum Summit (ITF 2022), hosted in Leipzig, to mark the start of the IRF Presidency of Anouar Benazzouz. Succeeding Bill Halkias who has concluded his three-year mandate at the helm of IRF, Benazzouz was elected unanimously as IRF president by the General Assembly on 29 March 2022 in Amsterdam.
    Read More
  • Current technologies could eliminate 90 per cent of traffic accidents
    April 27, 2012
    Nearly every traffic accident caused by driver error – up to 90 per cent of all crashes – could be eliminated if existing intelligent transportation technologies were implemented in vehicles and on roads, say experts at IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association. These include electronics and computing technologies such as in-vehicle machine vision and sensors to detect drowsy drivers, lane departure warning systems, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications for s
    Read More
  • VIDEO: Pilosio Building Peace Awards: the power of the construction sector
    September 22, 2015
    Four construction firms from Canada and one of Belgium’s largest infrastructure companies, 1303 Besix, have committed to building a school each during this year’s 7163 Pilosio Building Peace Award in Milan.

    Executives from the companies, along with those from several other property related businesses, accepted a challenge from the event’s guest of honour, US actress Sharon Stone: “Is anyone out there going to build me a schoo1?”
    Read More

Highlighted Content