His research interests include railroad transportation safety and risk analysis, decision making and operations research. Dr Saats dissertation research focused on development and application of optimization models to evaluate the most cost-effective approaches to improve safety and reduce public and environmental risk due to rail transport of hazardous materials. Originally from Malaysia, Dr. Saat received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.