Dr. Allan Zarembski heads University of Delaware railway engineering program
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefNoted railway civil engineering and safety consultant and researcher Dr. Allan M. Zarembski has accepted a position as research professor and director of the Railroad Engineering and Safety Program in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Delaware.
Dr. Zarembski has retired from ZETA-TECH Associates, the highly respected railway engineering consulting firm he founded in Cherry Hill, N.J., in 1984. Now a business unit of Harsco Rail, ZETA-TECH has been a leading consultancy and applied technology firm dedicated to the railway and transportation industries. Under Zarembski’s leadership, ZETA-TECH became recognized globally for helping set track engineering and safety standards. The company’s clients include major railroads and transportation systems around the world as well as international government authorities and private engineering firms. Among these are the Federal Railway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Department of Transportation, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Department of Defense, Department of Defense, American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association, Association of American Railroads, and Railway Tie Association.
Dr. Zarembski, who holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Civil Engineering from Princeton University, and an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics and a B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from New York University, began his railway engineering career as a Research Associate in the Department of Civil Engineering at Princeton. He then spent five years at the Association of American Railroads, in the Track Research Division. He then worked at Pandrol Inc./Speno Rail Services Co. as Director Research & Development. He then founded ZETA-TECH, where he directed activities in track maintenance planning and planning software, vehicle-track dynamics and interaction, rail and track analyses, economic analyses of railroad operations, and railway costing. The company’s specialties include railroad track structure, vehicle-track dynamics, fatigue and failure analysis, safety, and risk management.
In addition to ZETA-TECH’s consulting work, Dr. Zarembski is well-known to Railway Age and Railway Track & Structures readers through his numerous articles and conference presentations, and through two books, Tracking R&D: Research and Development, and The Art and Science of Rail Grinding, both published by Simmons-Boardman Books. He contributed the “Track: Alignment and Structure” chapter to Simmons-Boardman’s The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does, Fifth Edition. An active AREMA member, Dr. Zarembski authored more than 150 papers on railroad track analysis and behavior, rail fatigue, and freight car design and analysis, and more than 130 articles on railway operations and maintenance, published in many major U.S. and international rail industry publications.
Dr. Zarembski’s appointment at the University of Delaware was effective Aug. 1.
