2620 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 265-1882
David A. Noyce became College of Engineering executive associate dean in June 2019. In this role, he serves as the lead associate dean and works collaboratively with the associate deans for undergraduate affairs, research and graduate affairs, research administration, advancement, and administrative and finance. His duties include leading long-range strategic planning related to administrative, financial, infrastructure and educational directions of the college. Noyce also oversees the college undergraduate program, Wendt Commons, Computer-Aided Engineering, the engineering student shops, and the college outreach efforts. Additionally, he plays a leadership role in faculty recruitment, promotion, pre- and post-tenure activities, compensation and retention.
He is the Dr. Arthur F. Hawnn Professor of Transportation Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from UW-Madison in 1984 and 1995, respectively, and received his PhD in civil (transportation) engineering from Texas A&M University in 1999. He is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin. He also has completed coursework for an MBA degree at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Noyce has more than three decades of experience in transportation engineering, including appointments in state government, private consulting, and academia. He began his career with the Illinois Department of Transportation, then moved to the private sector in leadership positions in several consulting engineering firms. He also held positions at Texas A&M University and the Texas Transportation Institute before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1999. He returned to UW-Madison in 2002 and joined the faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, teaching courses on topics that include transportation engineering, geometric design, traffic engineering, transportation safety, and human factors in transportation. He served as department chair from 2015-2019, providing leadership during a period of unprecedented student, faculty, research and philanthropic growth. Under him, the department continued to be ranked as one of the top-15 (top-10 public) in the country. He is a champion for recruiting and retaining faculty, staff and students in STEM disciplines, particularly those traditionally underrepresented in engineering.
Recognized internationally for his expertise in transportation safety and operations, specifically at complex intersections, Noyce has made several significant contributions to the advancement of transportation engineering. As a principal investigator, he has completed nearly 200 research projects totaling $30 million in expenditures, and authored more than 300 refereed scholarly papers, conference proceedings, research reports, and book chapters. Among his contributions, he was the lead researcher in the development and implementation of the flashing yellow arrow permissive left-turn traffic signal indication, which is considered one of the most significant improvements in traffic signal operations and traffic safety in recent history and has been adopted by every U.S. transportation agency and implemented at thousands of signalized intersections throughout the country.
Noyce also conducts research nationally and internationally in the areas of connected and automated vehicles, leads the federally designated Wisconsin Automated Proving Grounds, and helped establish a joint research Institute with Southeast University in Nanjing, China. He is founding director of the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at UW-Madison, leads the Wisconsin Driving Simulator Laboratory, and directs the UW-Madison partnership in the SAFER-SIM University Transportation Center.