Christopher James Pettit

Professor Christopher James Pettit is a Scientia Professor and Director of the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW Sydney, a globally recognized institute for urban research since 2005. He chairs the Board of Directors for CUPUM (Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management), a leading international forum at the intersection of digital technologies and urban planning. His roles include global advisor to PGIM’s RealAssetX Lab, member of Australia’s Urban Policy Network, and Scientific Committee of AURIN.

His expertise focuses on converging city planning with digital technologies like GIS and Planning Support Systems (PSS). With over 200 publications and a Stanford-Elsevier 2024 ranking as one of the world’s top 2% scientists, he leads high-impact projects such as the Value Australia initiative (winner of 6 awards) and the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) Toolkit. He established the City Analytics Lab (2018), hosting over 350 workshops and engaging 4,000 participants. His startups include MapAI, which democratizes geospatial analysis via chat interfaces and won NSW Geospatial Excellence Awards in 2024.

Notable platforms include the National Housing Data Exchange portal and the Australian Housing Market Explorer. His research emphasizes data-driven city scenarios, geovisualization tools, and AI applications in urban decision-making.

Awards include recognition for Value Australia’s commercial success and MapAI’s innovation. He contributes to editorial boards of journals like Computer, Environment and Urban Systems and Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy.