People

Penn IUR is affiliated with more than 200 experts in the field of urbanism. Its Faculty Fellows program identifies faculty at the University of Pennsylvania with a demonstrated interest in urban research; the Penn IUR Scholars program identifies urban scholars outside of Penn; and the Penn IUR Fellows program identifies expert urban practitioners. Together, these programs foster a community of scholars and encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration.

View by:
, ,
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
clear
Affiliated PhD Student

Yeonhwa Lee

x

Doctoral Candidate, City and Regional Planning

About

Yeonhwa Lee is a doctoral student in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the creation and maintenance of socio-spatial mix in communities in the context of urban regeneration and the role of housing policy and programs in the process. Before coming to Penn, Yeonhwa was co-founder and operations director at an urban data analytics startup in London. Yeonhwa holds a MSc in International Planning from the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Affiliated PhD Student

Robert Levinthal

x

Doctoral Candidate, City and Regional Planning

About

Rob Levinthal is a doctoral student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests are in large-scale Nature-based Solutions and how they are designed, planned, implemented, and perceived by disparate stakeholders. Rob is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning master's program, where his work was recognized by the American Society of Landscape Architects and by the Landscape Architecture Foundation as a 2020 National Olmsted Scholar Finalist. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (13 - 15') from Senegal, West Africa, Rob served as an Agroforestry Extension Agent in the small village of Drame Sadiabou. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies, and research grants have enabled him to work and travel from the Sahara Desert to the Arctic Circle.

Selected Publications

Levinthal, R. (Forthcoming) “The Green Around the Wall.” LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture. Green Issue. Spring 2022.

Emerging Scholar

Shengxiao (Alex) Li

x

Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Public Policy at University of California Riverside

About

Shengxiao (Alex) Li is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Public Policy at University of California Riverside. He received his PhD in City and Regional Planning at Penn. Prior joining Penn, he obtained his bachelor’s degrees in urban management and economics and his master’s degree in city and regional planning from Peking University in China. His research focuses on two areas: (1) the relationship of transport and land use at the regional and neighborhood levels internationally, and (2) the travel behavior of vulnerable people and policy interventions to promote transport equity. His current project at Penn mainly focuses on the residential location, travel behavior, and wellbeing of older adults in the United States. He aims to bridge several research fields with respect to aging mobility in urban planning, geography, public health, social work, and gerontology and derive planning implications in an aging era. He has published more than ten papers in top-tier transportation planning journals, including Transportation Research Part A and Part D, Journal of Transport Geography, Transport Policy, and Transportation. He was awarded competitive thesis scholarships twice from Peking University-Lincoln Institute, in 2014 and 2017.

Affiliated PhD Student

Sirus Libeiro

x

Doctoral Canidate, City and Regional Planning, School of Design, University of Pennslyvania

About

Sirus Libeiro is a doctoral student in city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design.

Emerging Scholar

Theodore Lim

x

Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, Virginia Tech

About

Theodore Lim is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. He has over ten years of experience in environmental planning-related fields, including academic and industry positions in environmental data science in agricultural technology, civil engineering design and sustainable masterplanning, and urban public health. Dr. Lim's research on urban hydrology, distributed stormwater management practices, and green infrastructure program implementation in cities has been published in top-ranked, peer-reviewed journals. His research interests also include green infrastructure planning at the regional scale, land development impacts on the hydrological cycle, and applications of data science in urban and environmental planning. Dr. Lim received his PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 2017.

Selected Publications

T.C. Lim and C. Welty. “Assessing variability and uncertainty in green infrastructure planning using a high-resolution surface-subsurface hydrological model and site-monitored flow data” Frontiers of the Built Environment, (2018)

T.C. Lim. “Revitalizing Urban Neighborhoods by Adopting Green Infrastructure: The Case of Washington DC” Urban Planning International (2018)

T.C. Lim. “An empirical study of spatial-temporal growth patterns of a voluntary residential green infrastructure program”. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management (2017)

T.C. Lim and C. Welty “Effects of spatial configuration of imperviousness and green infrastructure networks on hydrologic response in a residential sewershed” Water Resources Research (2017)

Faculty Fellow

Zhongjie Lin

x

Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning

About

Dr. Zhongjie Lin is a scholar and practitioner of urbanism. He studies and teaches urban design, ecological urbanism, utopianism, and Asian architecture and urbanism. He has authored or co-authored several books including Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan, Urban Design in the Global Perspective, The Making of a Chinese Model New Town, and most recently Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China. He is working on a new book entitled Constructing Utopias: China’s Emerging New Town Movement, to be published by the Princeton University Press.

Dr. Lin’s research work has earned him the honors including a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2012 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. He also received research grants and awards from many national and international foundations such as the Social Science Research Council, the Graham Foundation, the Architectural Research Centers Consortium, the Asian Cultural Council, the Japan Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and the National Science Foundation of China.

Before he joined the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Dr. Lin was Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he served as Director of Master of Urban Design Program since 2014. He is also a co-founder of Futurepolis, an awarding-winning international design firm. He holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Architecture from Tongji University.

Faculty Fellow

Ken Lum

x

Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential Professor

Chair of Fine Arts

About

Ken Lum is the Marilyn Jordan Taylor Presidential Professor at the Department of Fine Arts at the Weitzman School of Design. Prior to coming to Penn, Lum was Head of the Graduate Program in Studio Art at the University of British Columbia, Visiting Professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and Graduate Professor at the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College. He is co-founder and founding Editor of Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Lum was made a Guggenheim Fellow in 1999 and awarded a Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998 and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2007. He has served on the Board of Directors for the The PowerPlant (Toronto), Annie Wong Art Foundation (Hong Kong), Arts Initiative Tokyo, and Centre A (Vancouver). He was co-curator of Shanghai Modern: 1919-1945 and Sharjah Biennial 7. He recently co-curated Monument Lab: A Public Art and History Project in Philadelphia.

Selected Publications

Lum, Ken. 2016. “The Figure in the Carpet.” Catalog essay for the exhibition Wall to Wall: Carpets by Artists, curated by Dr. Cornelia Lauf for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland.

Lum, Ken. 2009. “Dear Steven.” In Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century), edited by Steven Madoff. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Lum, Ken and Hubert Damisch. 2008. Ultimo Bagaglio. Paris: Three Star Books.

Lum, Ken. 1999. “Canadian Cultural Policy: A Metaphysical Problem.” In Conference 1: Inside Out: Reassessing International Cultural Influence. Wroclaw, Poland: Apexart.

Faculty Fellow

Christopher Marcinkoski

x

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design

School/Department

Areas of Interest

    About

    Christopher Marcinkoski is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design in the School of Design. He is a licensed architect and founding director of PORT A+U, a leading-edge urban design consultancy with ongoing projects in Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Prior to his appointment at Penn, Marcinkoski was a senior associate at James Corner Field Operations in New York where he led that office’s large-scale urban design work including the QianHai Water City in Shenzhen and Shelby Farms Park in Memphis. Marcinkoski’s current research uses the urbanistic crisis that emerged in Spain over the first decade of the 21st century as a platform for considering the increasingly speculative nature of contemporary urbanization, and in particular, the disciplinary implications for the design and planning professions engaged in the work that comprises this phenomenon. 

    Selected Publications

    Marcinkoski, C. 2016. The City That Never Was: Reconsidering the Speculative Nature of Contemporary Urbanization. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.

    Marcinkoski, C. 2014. “Notes on the Horizontal: Landscape-Driven Strategies for the Vertical Cities Challenge.” 2013 Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition + Symposium. National University of Singapore and World Future Foundation.

    Marcinkoski, C. 2013. “Re-Cultivating the Forest City.” American Collegiate Schools of Architecture 101st Annual Conference.

    Faculty Fellow

    Randall Mason

    x

    Professor, Historic Preservation

    About

    Randall Mason is Associate Professor in the Department of Historic Preservation in the School of Design. His courses focus on historic preservation planning, urban conservation, history, and cultural landscape studies. Mason’s research interests include theory and methods of preservation planning, cultural policy, the economics of preservation, historic site management, the history and design of memorials, and the history of historic preservation. He leads the Center for Research on Preservation and Society, which undertakes applied research projects on site management and on social, economic and political aspects of historic preservation. Before joining the Penn faculty in 2004, Mason worked as Senior Project Specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, researching economic and social issues relating to heritage conservation. Previous positions include Assistant Professor and Director of Historic Preservation at the University of Maryland, and adjunct faculty in landscape architecture at RISD. His professional experience includes several years of consulting practice and co-founding the nonprofit research group Minerva Partners (which develops projects to strengthen the connections between heritage conservation and social development). He serves on the Board of Directors of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, and was the 2012-13 National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize winner at the American Academy in Rome.

    Selected Publications

    Mason, Randall. 2012. “Broadway as a Memory Site.” In The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, edited by Hilary Ballon. New York City: Columbia University Press.

    Mason, Randall. 2009. The Once and Future New York: Historic Preservation and the Modern City. University of Minnesota Press.

    Page, Max and Randall Mason, eds. 2004. Giving Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States. Routlege.

    Faculty Fellow

    Matthew Kenyatta

    x

    Director of Justice and Belonging, Department of City and Regional Planning

    About

    Dr. Matthew Jordan Kenyatta is the Director of Justice and Belonging in the School of Design’s Department of City and Regional Planning. He is a photographer, storyteller, and geographer who approaches these topics using mixed methods for producing insights that he weaves into his essays, presentations, teachings, and research. Dr. Miller has worked through fellowships and consultancies at governmental agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Stockton, the City of Los Angeles' Economic and Workforce Development Department, and most recently the National Endowment for the Arts as a Panelist. He is working on his first book, based on his doctoral dissertation, exploring and theorizing around the geography of Black commerce, culture, and creativity in the United States. His intellectual work has been honored by the National Academy of the Sciences and the Association for Collegiate Schools in Planning. His civic work has been recognized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the California State Legislature. His artistic and cultural work has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Philadelphia Tribune.

    Selected Publications

    Miller, M.J. (2020, forthcoming). “Need Black joy?” A Temporal, Human, and Economic Geography of Black Millennial Leisure in Los Angeles., in Hawthorne, C., and Lewis, J.S. (Eds.) in The Black Geographic: Praxis, Resistance, Futurity. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Miller, M.J. (2018). “If I Built the World, Imagine That: Reflections on World Building Practices in Black Los Angeles.” Journal of Planning Theory and Practice (19.2; Spring 2018): 254-288.

    Miller, M.J., 2015. Social Finance in Black Geographies: A Statistical Analysis of Locations in Los Angeles County. Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, p.78.

    Miller, M. J. (2014). Did” Pookie” get a green-collar job?: a critical case study on the East Bay Green Corridor's employment goals, activities, and impacts (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

    Fellow

    Simon Mosbah

    x

    Managing Director, Economics, Finance and Grants, WSP

    About

    Simon Mosbah is a Managing Director, Economics, Finance and Grants with WSP in Washington D.C., in the U.S. Advisory Services Group, focusing on transit project development and finance. He holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. His dissertation focused on airports, airport expansions and employment in U.S. metropolitan areas. He published an article on the topic of airports and economic development in the Journal of Planning Literature, with Dr. Megan Ryerson: “Can US Metropolitan Areas Use Large Commercial Airports as Tools to Bolster Regional Economic Growth?”. He worked on the Sustainable Communities Indicators Catalog, a project between the Penn Institute for Urban Research and the Partnership for Sustainable Communities (U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development) between 2013 and 2015, with Dr. Eugenie Birch as PI and funding by the Ford Foundation. He was specifically responsible for the selection and definition of transportation indicators for the catalog. Originally from France, Simon is a graduate of the Sorbonne (majoring in Classics, with minors in History and Linguistics), and the Ecole Normale Superieure; he holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School (majoring in Corporate Finance and Diversity Management). He previously worked as a business strategy consultant in France, specializing in rail transportation, and taught French at Amherst College (Massachusetts).

    Selected Publications

    Mosbah, S. 2013 “Rethinking transit projects in high-income neighborhoods.” Panorama. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, School of Design.

    Affiliated PhD Student

    Diana Patricia Negron

    x

    Doctoral Candidate, City and Regional Planning

    About

    Diana Patricia Negron is a doctoral candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Her research interests include urban economics, economic development, and the study of algorithms as they further gender and racial bias. The American Society of Public Administration has recognized her scholarly work due to the utility of the research to the study and practice of public administration. She has served as a Policy Advisor for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. She is leading policy work on a brand-new tax credit structure for entrepreneurship and economic development initiatives. Diana has worked primarily in the public sector for the City of Newark and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has experience creating and implementing economic development policies to improve equitable access to capital further and increase the local economy in cities. Additionally, Diana holds a B.A. and Master of Public Administration from Rutgers University – Newark. 

    Bring our latest initiatives, publications and events to your inbox.