Sevara Melibaeva – an MIT student from Uzbekistan who is completing noteworthy research on the construction of a high-speed rail system between Lisbon and Porto, research funded by the MIT-Portugal Program – has been awarded a position in the World Bank’s prestigious Young Professionals Program. The program – which Melibaeva will begin in September, after she completes her MIT degree – will provide her with an opportunity to enter a career track at the World Bank and to further develop her skills in development policy and economics. This will be her second stint at the bank’s Washington headquarters; after earning an M.B.A. in Tashkent and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Melibaeva was a member of a World Bank team working on sustainable development in transportation in Europe and Central Asia. According to MIT-Portugal Transportation Systems faculty member Prof. Joseph Sussman, Melibaeva’s advisor in MIT’s Master of Science in Transportation program, the selectivity of the Young Professionals Program makes this a “singular honor.” “Very Fortunate” to Research Portugal Case
 Sevara Melibaeva (left) in Lisbon with fellow graduate students Travis Dunn (MIT), João Morgado (IST), Christopher Grillo (MIT), Christian Angelo Guevara (MIT) For Melibaeva, investigating the potential impacts of a high-speed rail corridor from Lisbon to Porto – including the short- and long-term economic effects it might have on four other cities on the route, Oeste, Leiria, Coimbra and Averio – “was a great experience.” The creation of a megalopolis via a high-speed rail project – what Melibaeva calls an “integrated economic urban complex created by fusing multiple cities” – requires consideration of both potentially positive and negative outcomes, she explains. For example, jobs might be created, but cities not included in the system might experience economic isolation. Melibaeva's work on the Portugal case, which draws on case studies of high-speed rail systems already built in Germany, France and Japan, has helped to link MIT-Portugal’s other research on high-speed rail in Portugal and the Program’s SOTUR (Strategic Options for Integrating Transportation Innovations and Urban Revitalization) project, an effort to promote desirable urban development patterns and travel outcomes. “I feel very fortunate to have worked on a project involving Portugal,” Melibaeva says, especially in collaboration with Prof. João Abreu of and Prof. Rosário Macário (both from IST), as well as Prof. Sussman and Prof. Christopher Zegras at MIT. “Not only were my colleagues very generous,” she reports, but the rail project “allowed me to look at infrastructure as a tool in development.” Details of Melibaeva's research are available here (PDF). | 
