The principal investigator for this project and director of the Institute is Prof. Leon F. Osborne. Prof. Osborne has been actively involved in intelligent transportation systems research and development activities at the national level since 1995. He presently serves on the NTCIP-ESS working group in support of weather information, an active member of the ITS America Working Group on Surface Transportation Weather, and is a charter member of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on ITS and Surface Transportation. Prof. Osborne has over 25 years of scientific research experience while serving as a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Regional Weather Information Center at the University of North Dakota. He has served since 1995 as the principal investigator of the Advanced Transportation Weather Information System at the University of North Dakota, which has laid the foundation for much of the present weather applications within the surface transportation industry. Prof. Osborne has over 50 publications and presentations in the past decade, many of which are devoted to surface transportation weather. He holds a Master of Science in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and is a member of the American Meteorological Society, ITS America, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society and the American Geophysical Union.