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Alexander Tetior

Alexander N. Tetior was born in Sverdlovsk (Russia, the Urals). On graduating from the Ural Polytechnic Institute he worked in the Urals (in building, design and scientific organizations).

From 1973 to 1994, Tetior was the chief of building structures in the Crimean Building Institute (Ukraine). He has worked at the Moscow University of Environmental Engineering since 1994 and is a professor, Dr. Sc. He was full member of the Crimean Academy of Sciences, the Ukrainian Ecological Academy of Sciences, and a State Prize laureate of the Republic of Crimea. He is member of the International Association for Ecology.

Professor Tetior is the author of more than 40 books in Russian, amongst them: Ecological Infrastructure (2004), and Ecocity (2006). Additionally Alexander Tetior is author and co-author of more than 100 patents and inventions.

He speaks English, Russian and Ukrainian.


Arun Jain

Arun Jain joined the City of Portland (Oregon, USA) as its first Chief Urban Designer in December 2002.

In this role he advises Portland’s Mayor and the city (city council, public agencies, private developers, designers and citizens) on issues surrounding the physical quality of Portland. A key aspect of his work is to integrate public investment in infrastructure and private investment in buildings to create wonderful places.

Arun has over 25 years of international experience as an urban designer in practice and academia. Trained as an architect, he holds two masters degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Urban Design Program. Arun is an invited teacher, critic and speaker at universities, public agencies and development groups around the world. Prior to Portland, he taught for over ten years at the University of California, Berkeley.

Arun also mentors development issues and creative thinking in several international forums. He was US representative to the International Federation of Housing and Planning’s (IFHP) Bureau. Professionally and philosophically, Arun continues to search for better balances between the environmental, economic and ethical dimensions of sustainability.


Augustus Tiambeng

Augustus Padilla Tiambeng completed his early education at the Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines) where he earned academic honors and his BA (Development Communications). He graduated with an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands (1982).

Since 1977 he has worked on various development projects involving the development of integrated areas, small enterprises, and services for communities and specific groups, in Southeast Asia and Turkey. His contributions have included planning, implementation management, training, program assessment, fund raising, and forging multi-group ‘win-win’ contracts. Based in Ankara since 2000 he does consultancy work for United Nations agencies and European Union programmes in Turkey and also heads a development-consulting firm.

Mr. Tiambeng masters English and Turkish.


Brede Norderud

Brede Norderud is civil engineer and architect from The Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim. He is chief architect/leader of The Section for General Planning/Infrastructure in The Agency for Planning and Building Services, Oslo Municipality.

Brede contributes also as member of Educational Board in Tekna (The Norwegian Society of Chartered Technical and Scientific Professionals) and as lecturer on current urban development issues.

Mr Norderud speaks English and masters Scandinavian languages.


Colin Fudge

Colin Fudge B.Arch (Hons), MA, D.Sc, FRIBA, MRTPI, FRSA is Professor of Urban Futures and Design, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and member on the International Board of the Swedish Research Councils, the International Board of the MISTRA Urban Sustainable Futures Centre, the Cities Advisory Board, and the International Scientific Board, Chalmers University, Gothenburg.

He has among others advised the Urban Transitions – EU Climate Change Programme KIC, and the UN Global Compact Cities Programme.

Colin Fudge is Emeritus Professor RMIT University (Australia), acted as Inaugural President of RMIT University Europe (Barcelona) and was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor in Bristol, UK.

He has worked in academia, the private sector and in government in the UK and State Government of Victoria, Australia. Colin Fudge headed the European Union Expert Group on the Urban Environment, chaired the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign and the OECD International Urban Indicators Panel. He was also Visiting Professor, at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, and member of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) in England and patron of the UK Urban Design Group.

Professor Fudge has contributed through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on public policy formulation and implementation for sustainable urban development and adaptation to climate change. He received awards from the Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Professor Fudge has written a number of books, over 100 articles, reports, book chapters and conference papers.


David Goode

David Goode has over 40 years experience working in both central and local government in the UK and an international reputation for environmental projects, ranging from wetland conservation to urban sustainability. He was Senior Ecologist at the Greater London Council, Director of the London Ecology Unit and latterly Head of Environment at the Greater London Authority. He has been directly involved in developing the theory and practice of urban nature conservation, both as a professional ecologist and an enthusiastic naturalist.  He published Wild in London in 1986 and co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology, published in 2011.  He has worked in major cities in China, and in Santiago, Chile. A Visiting Professor at University College London since 1994, he was Honorary Professor at East China Normal University from 1996-2001. He is a member of the IUCN Specialist Group on Cities and Protected Areas.


David van Vliet

David van Vliet is an urban environment planning educator and practitioner. He acted as member of the International Innovation (Advisory) Board for the MILUnet project.

He has a Masters Degree from the Faculty of Environmental Design University of Calgary, a Doctorate from the School of Urban and Regional Planning University of British Columbia at Vancouver and is a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of City Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, teaching urban ecology and environmental planning and design theory and practice.


Gerrit-Jan Knaap

Gerrit-Jan Knaap is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and Director of the National Centre for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland.

He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, and received post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in economics.

Professor Knaap’s research interests include the economics and politics of land use planning, the efficacy of economic development instruments, and the impacts of environmental policy. On these subjects, Gerrit-Jan has published over 50 articles in journals that include the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Policy Analysis and Management; and State and Local Government Review.

He received the Chester Rapkin award for the best paper published in Volume 10 of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, with Greg Lindsey he received the 1998 best of ACSP award, and in 2007 he received the Outstanding Planner Award from the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association.

He serves on the State of Maryland’s Smart Growth Subcabinet, the Task Force on the Future of Growth and Development in Maryland, and the Science and Technical Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Bay Commission.


Heinrich Klose

Heinrich Klose is honorary professor for urban planning and design at the Department of Architecture, City and Landscape Planning, of the University of Kassel, since1996. His field of study is the maintenance of town centres. Before he was a teaching associate at the same Department in the field of development planning in urban structures.  From 1973 until 2004 he also was head of the Planning Office in the County of Kassel (230,000 inhabitants) planning more than 200 projects in city development and maintenance of historical centres and planning land use and creating master plans.

He also has his own architectural office for architecture and city planning, since 2004.

Apart from English professor Klose masters German (his mother tongue).


 Joao Basto

Joao is a Graduate in Architecture from the Architectural Association (1975), London, and Post-graduate in Town Planning by the Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture et Arts Visuels – La Cambre (1978), Brussels.  He is Master in Architectural History (Courtauld Institute of Art, 1986, London and Rome).

Mr. Basto held consultancy posts at the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China (1983-1986) and the Cultural Institute of the Government of Macao (1995-1999). He was lecturer at the School of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong, coordinator of the Lisbon Centre for Urban Affairs and Foreign Affairs Officer on international territorial management and cultural diversity issues of the Lisbon City Council [LCC], senior advisor on EU cooperation and exchange programmes on the development of cities and the sustainability of their environment, and exhibition producer to the Strategic Planning Department of the LCC (2005-2009).

In addition to English Joao speaks Portuguese (his mother tongue).


John W Frece

John W. Frece is the associate director of the National Centre for Smart Growth Research and Education and an adjunct professor in Urban Studies and Planning.

His responsibilities include public outreach and response to media inquiries related to smart growth generally and Maryland’s Smart Growth initiative specifically. A long-time newspaper reporter, Frece previously worked on the staff of the governor of Maryland, as the chief spokesman for Maryland’s Smart Growth initiative.


Karolina Krósnicka

Karolina Krósnicka is a researcher interested in problems of port planning and operations, functional and spatial port-city relations, and urban planning of post-port and post-industrial areas.

Employed as senior lecturer at the Department of Transportation Systems at the Faculty of Navigation at Gdynia Maritime University (Gdynia, Poland) she defended her PhD thesis on the topic of the evolution of spatial relation between the port and the city of Gdansk (Poland) at the Faculty of Architecture of Technical University of Wroclaw (Poland).

She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Technical University of Gdansk with specialization in Urban Planning.

Furthermore she collaborates as a consultant in a number of projects on ports and transportation infrastructures.

Karolina is fluent in English as well as Polish (her mother tongue).


Kerry London

Professor London is Dean of the University of South Australia.

She was the first female Chair in construction management in Australia. Prior to entering academia in 2001 she worked as an architect and in government as a project manager in capital works procurement; in 1997 successfully brought together in a public private partnership three clients for the Jawoyn people for the Visitor centre, Nitmiluk, Australia. She worked in construction industry policy & strategic asset management introducing reforms & changing public sector thinking about the built environment. She has over 150 peer reviewed research publications including books on supply chain theory & practice. She was instrumental in creating the Australian National Housing Supply Chain Alliance – a group of organizations dedicated to transforming the housing sector through research on integrated supply chains. Kerry is a past President of Chartered Institute of Building Australasia. She developed the first online Masters of Construction Management program in Australia). Professor London held a Ministerial appointment on the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council.


Mary-Ellen Tyler

Mary-Ellen is Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada; She is an expert in Ecological Systems Design, Sustainable Development and Design and teaches Urban and Regional Planning and Design at the School of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Environmental Design.

Mary-Ellen is a very experienced tutor and knows how to educate. Her contribution to the development of the environmental professions in Canada is widely recognized.


Mercedes Ferrer

Mercedes Ferrer is a Venezuelan national who currently holds the position of senior professor and researcher at the universities of Zulia (Venezuela) and Malaga (Spain).

She graduated from Zulia university with a degree in Political Science and in addition holds a Masters in Philosophy: Town and Country Planning from the university of Newcastle upon Tyne. Amongst a variety of professional positions she was a planner for the ministry of urban development in Venezuela from 1976 to 1979, as well being the author of many books and articles.

Mercedes masters English as well as Spanish.


 Udo Simonis

Udo Simonis is emeritus professor from the Berlin Social Science Centre (WBZ), at which he served as director of the International Institute for Environment and Society IIES. He is an economist, graduated at the Universities of Mainz, Freiburg and Vienna. He defended his doctoral thesis in Kiel. Professor Simonis is fellow of the Japanese Society for the promotion of Sciences (JSPS) and president of the World Society of Ekistics WSE. He was advisor to a range of UN organisations, committees and national governments, personal advisor to the President of the Republic of Zambia and co-chaired the Task Force on Environmental Governance for China.

Professor Simonis published a range of books and articles on sustainable development. He received awards, honorary memberships and honorary doctorates,

Udo Simonis speaks English and German among others.


Volkmar Pamer

Volkmar Pamer is a city planner working in the Urban Planning Department of Vienna Earlier he worked at several architectural offices and building companies (as student and free lanced architect).

Volkmar‘s produced zoning plans for Vienna’s south, co-ordinated the target area ‘Liesing Mitte’ in the south of Vienna, focusing on urban farming, resource saving enterprise areas and transformation areas. He was project coordinator, area manager of the urban renewal showcase Cable and Wire Factory, and co-author of two books on that issue. As founding member of the IFHP (International Federation for Housing and Planning) working party MILU (Multifunctional and Intensive Land Use), and co-developer of the workshop format ‘Implementation Lab’, he facilitated in about 30 implementation labs Europe-wide. Volkmar lectured in Europe, Syria, USA, China and Japan.

In addition to English Volkmar masters German (his mother tongue) and the basics of Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish.


Walter Buser

Walter Buser is City Director, Urban Redeveloping and Public Housing, Department of Urban Planning, City of Munich, Germany.

Water holds a Diploma in architecture and city planning from the Technical University of Munich and a Graduate Diploma in housing and energy questions at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London.

Walter Buser has more than 30 years of practical experience in various fields of urban development strategies such as city planning management, cooperation with citizens, politicians and the media, frequent lecturer on issues of housing and real estate in Munich, Germany and abroad. He sits on many panels to try and convince the stakeholders of the importance of a socially integrative urban development approach along Munich’s strategic guideline “compact, urban, green”.

Walter is fluent in English, and German (mother tongue)


Ole Damsgaard

Mr. Damsgaard has extensive experience of regional development and spatial planning policies. Has been member of several national and international working and expert groups. Since 2005 ne acts as associated member of the Nordic Senior Official Committee of Regional Policy. Has for years been a part time teacher at University of Copenhagen in Social and Urban Geography and has since 1990 been external examinator in Social and Cultural Geography at University of Copenhagen and University of Roskilde. He has participated in the evaluation of the Danish education system according to education and training of spatial planners. Since 2005 he has been chairing the steering committee of the Nordic Research Programme on regional development and policy. He is since 2008 connected as reviewer to EU’s 7th Framework Programme on Research.

Among his publications are: Evaluation of the Potential for Regional Policy Instruments, 2007 – 2013, to contribute to the Lisbon and Göteborg objectives for growth, jobs and sustainable development, a task for the European Commission, DG-Regio; Planning of the Future City, adaptation to and mitigation of Global Climate Change, task for the Nordic Council of Ministers; Renewable Energy and Clean tech – Tools for regional Development, task for Region Jämtland; Support to Nordic working groups on implementation of the Nordic Cooperation Programme 2009 – 2012 on Regional Policy, task for the Nordic Council of Ministers; Evaluation of two research programmes ‘The Sustainable City’ and ‘The Livable City’, commissioned by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial planning (FORMAS).

Ole masters English as well as Danish (his mother tongue)


Paula Russell

Dr. Paula Russell is a Lecturer in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy in University College Dublin.

She is a qualified planner and has a PhD in Planning from University College Dublin. Her teaching responsibilities are focused on the social context of planning and her main research interests are in the area of urban regeneration and the interface between civil society and the policy process. She is currently undertaking a number of research projects on the Third Sector and civil society engagement in urban and rural areas funded by the Royal Irish Academy and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. Paula is also a member of the Governing Board of the European Urban Research Association.


Rusong Wang

Rusong Wang obtained his Ph.D. in Systems Ecology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1985.

His current position is as a professor and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Science (RCEES). He is also president of the Ecological Society of China (ESC). The main purposes of RCEES are to carry out national and international research projects in environmental sciences, systems ecology and environmental engineering, to advance the science and technology nationally and internationally, to provide fundamental data in ecological and environmental sciences for governments and to offer applied high technology to enterprises.

In addition to this Rusong Wang is also the author / co-author of many published works< amongst them The theory and Practice of Hainan Eco-province Development. (2004), Industrial Ecology (2002), Eco-Integration Approaches for Middle and Small Sized Cities and Towns  Sustainable Development (2001), and Wealth, Health and Faith, Sustainability Studies in China (1996).

Rusong Wang masters English as well as Chinese (his mother tongue)


Stephen Lau

Stephen Siu Yu Lau graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London University (1980), with an MSc in Architecture.

Currently he is an Adjunct Professor of the Tongji University and the Southeast University, China, and also Director of the Centre of Architecture and Urban Design for China and Hong Kong at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Stephen Lau is Coordinator of Mega-cities Research at HKU and coordinator of the International Council of Building Innovation and Construction (Delft) CIB Task Group: Mega-cities.

Stephen masters English and Chinese.


Virna Bussadori

Virna Bussadori graduated in Urban & Territorial Planning at the University of Venice. She is director of the office for Spatial Planning of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (Italy).

Since 1993 she has been a member of the board of the Italian Association of Planners (AssUrb) which she represents within the European Council of Spatial Planners (ECTP-CEU). She was President of the ECTP-CEU for the period 2008-9. She co-edited the New Charter of Athens 2003 and Try It This Way, a guide to sustainable urban development. Virna was a consultant for the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

She collaborates in various European Interreg programmes.

Virna is fluently in English as well as Italian (her mother tongue) and masters German.