Geraldine Knatz, University of Southern California

Abstract

This presentation identifies and analyzes the relative importance of the multi-faceted factors that drive the decision to automate container terminals and the realized benefits, thus establishing how accurately terminal operators predicted the benefits of automation. The empirical analysis relies on a survey-based approach and the input of senior representatives of terminal operating entities.

Bio:

Geraldine Knatz is Professor of the Practice of Policy and Engineering, a joint appointment between the University of Southern California’s School of Public Policy and the School of Engineering. She served as the first female Director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 to January 2014 and prior to that was Managing Director at the Port of Long Beach.   Knatz had a significant impact on the maritime industry by creating and implementing the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan.   In 2014, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in recognition of her international leadership in the development of environmentally clean urban seaports, and she currently serves on the NAE Council. That same year, she was honored with Containerization & Intermodal Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.   An author of several books about Los Angeles Harbor, Knatz’s career has been featured in several popular books, most notably in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes’s Door to Door, David Helvarg’s The Golden Shore,  Bill Sharpsteen’s The Docks and Kat Kanowicz’s Chasing Zero.”

[Slides]