Gift from Trucking Industry Group will Benefit U of M Civil Engineering Student
For release: August 30, 2010
For press information, contact Curt Guenther, 901-678-2843

The Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute (IFTI) at the University of Memphis has received a $5,000 gift from the Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA) in recognition of IFTI’s support of the trucking industry’s essential role in America’s transportation system.

IFTI will use the gift to support Jeffrey Karafa, a graduate student in the Civil Engineering Department of the Herff College of Engineering at the University.  He will graduate in December with a degree in civil engineering and will begin working on his master’s degree in January.  Jeffrey was selected based on his outstanding work in the classroom.  As a graduate student, he will focus his research on areas that can support the trucking industry.

Lee Piovarcy, TIDA president and local attorney with Martin Tate Morrow & Marston, P.C., presented the award to Karafa and to Dr. Martin Lipinski, director of IFTI, at the August 26th meeting of the Trucking Industry Roundtable.  The Roundtable, sponsored by IFTI, is an annual meeting of leaders focused on discussing pressing issues facing the trucking industry.

Dr. Lipinski said, “This is the perfect opportunity for acknowledging this award.  Gifts like this support our efforts to recruit the most talented students to our city and our University and to conduct research that is critically important to the region and the nation.”

With a membership of more than 1,600 trucking professionals, TIDA was founded in 1993 as a national organization committed to engaging in actions and activities that reduce loss costs to the trucking industry.   Members include motor carriers, third party claims administrators, and defense counsel.

Jeffrey Karafa (center), graduate student in civil engineering at the University of Memphis’ Herff College of Engineering, receives a check from Lee Piovarcy, president of the Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA), on behalf of the Intermodal Freight Transportation Institute (IFTI) at the U of M.  Dr. Marty Lipinski (right), IFTI director and chairman of the College’s Department of Civil Engineering, said TIDA’s financial support will help Karafa and others continue their transportation-related research, which is critically important to the region and the nation.