Valeria Caiati is an Assistant Professor at the Urban Planning Group within the Built Environment School at Eindhoven University of Technology. Her research focuses on sustainable urban mobility, smart cities, and the role of ICTs in fostering sustainable development. She leads the SCRIPTS project exploring demand-driven mobility services and platform technologies. She holds a PhD from TU/e, preceded by professional experience in international consultancy and research institutes in Italy. Valeria teaches courses like 'Built Environment and Smart Mobility' and contributes to 8 active/funded projects, including LEVERAGE and NEDAM initiatives. Her research interests revolve around Mobility as a Service (MaaS), sustainable transportation policies, and behavioral modeling of transport adoption. She employs mixed-methods approaches, including stated choice experiments and portfolio analysis to assess user preferences and system impacts. Recent work examines parking guidance systems, electric vehicle adoption drivers, and corporate sustainability interventions. Valeria has supervised 9 academic works and actively participates in peer-review for journals like Transportation and European Transport Research Review . She engages in professional activities such as invited talks on MaaS bundling strategies and workshop participations on transformative urban mobility. Her teaching portfolio includes courses integrating theory with practical studio projects in urban development.
Andrea Beltratti is a Full Professor at Bocconi University, specializing in financial economics and asset pricing. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University (1989) and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Turin (1982). His research focuses on stock and bond volatility, mortgage markets, environmental economics, and financial crises. Notably, his work on asset price dynamics was mentioned during the 2013 Nobel Prize Ceremony. He teaches courses on equity portfolio management, financial investments, and real estate valuation. Education: Ph.D., Yale University; B.A., University of Turin Key Research Areas: Financial markets, banking systems, sustainable development, and macroeconomic policy Beltratti’s publications span journals like the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Oxford Economic Papers. His award-winning contributions include analyses of global credit crises and asymmetric contagion effects in European sovereign debt markets. He actively contributes to academic discussions through teaching and research on fintech, infrastructure finance, and alternative investments.
Alberto Salvo is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), holding a PhD from the London School of Economics. His research spans environmental economics, industrial organisation, and applied microeconomics, with a focus on urban pollution, consumer behavior, and climate action. Environmental Economics & Policy (Undergraduate) Economics of the Environment (PhD) Advanced Industrial Organisation (PhD) His work examines air pollution impacts on health and productivity, fuel switching dynamics in megacities, and behavioral responses to environmental stress. Recent publications analyze particulate pollution in China, temperature effects in tropical cities, and plastic waste patterns linked to food delivery. Notable awards include the JAERE Best Paper Award (2020), Robert Mundell Prize (2010), and Antitrust Policy Award (2007). His collaborations span institutions in Brazil, China, and Singapore.
Susana Mourato is Professor of Environmental Economics at the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She joined LSE in 2008 after ten years at Imperial College London. In 2021, she became the Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at LSE. She also holds positions as Visiting Reader at Imperial College London and Honorary Senior Fellow at CSERGE (University of East Anglia). Professor Mourato is an expert in environmental economics and the application of economic valuation techniques to measure environmental change and social value. Professor Mourato's research focuses on valuing natural wealth and creating markets for ecosystem services, perceptions and preferences for low-carbon energy technologies, environmental valuation methods and applications, and the relationship between life satisfaction and the environment. Her work spans the fields of environmental economics, wellbeing economics, and behavioral environmental economics. She has conducted extensive research on ecosystem services, wildlife conservation, air and water pollution, chemicals, climate change, low carbon technologies, and cultural heritage, testing and applying economic valuation techniques to these diverse areas. Her recent publications show a strong trend toward integrating behavioral economics with traditional environmental valuation techniques. She has published extensively on the links between subjective wellbeing and environmental quality, as well as the application of economic valuation methods to inform environmental policy. Her work often involves interdisciplinary collaborations across economics, ecology, and social sciences, with significant policy impact through government advisory roles and international organizations. Member of Culture & Heritage Capital Advisory Board (UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport) Associate of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Former Academic Director of LSE Summer School Former Head of Department (2017-2020) Professor Mourato has worked on more than 45 research projects and consultancies for research councils, government, industry, charities, and international organizations. She currently leads projects for the OECD evaluating the impact of chemicals on IQ, for LSE Middle East Centre estimating preferences for climate change policies in the Gulf Region, and for water conservation in Kuwait. Her research has informed policy development in multiple countries and international contexts.
David S. Caudill is a Professor of Law and the inaugural Arthur M. Goldberg Family Chair at Villanova University’s Widger School of Law since 2005. He also holds the title of Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law Faculty. Caudill has held visiting appointments at the University of Texas, Southern Illinois University, Cardozo School of Law, and the University of Florida. Education: J.D., University of Houston Law Center (1981) Ph.D., Philosophy, Free University of Amsterdam (1989) B.A., Philosophy, Michigan State University (1973) Postdoctoral work: Science & Technology Studies at Virginia Tech (2001) and Washington Psychoanalytic Institute (1994-95) Caudill’s research bridges law and science studies , law and literature , and sports and entertainment law . His recent work examines the legal implications of scientific consensus, confidentiality in business contexts, and the ethical dimensions of literary narratives in jurisprudence. His five 2025 publications reflect interdisciplinary engagement with legal ethics, scientific evidence in courtrooms, and the intersection of law with cultural and scientific discourse. Articles address topics like non-disclosure agreements, climate change litigation, and the use of literature in legal ethics training. Scientific Awards: SKAPP grant (2007) Société de Chimie Industrielle Fellow (2007/2008) Before academia, Caudill practiced real estate and sports law, clerked for the Fifth Circuit, and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas. His presentations span themes like expertise crises, psychoanalytic theory in law, and religious aspects of legal epistemology.
Natasha Zhang Foutz is a Research Associate Professor of Commerce at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia . Her work bridges Artificial Intelligence , Marketing Analytics , and Consumer Behavior , with a focus on Digital Content and Location-Based Services . She teaches Marketing Analytics , Entertainment Marketing , and Marketing Models across undergraduate to PhD programs. Ph.D. in Marketing, Cornell University M.S. in Statistics & Marketing, Cornell University B.S. in Economics, Fudan University Her research investigates: AI-Powered Entertainment Marketing : Using machine learning to analyze consumer behavior in digital content. Privacy and Ethical Data Use : Studying consumer trade-offs between privacy and public good, especially during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic . Location Analytics : Leveraging mobile data for urban economics, real estate, and emergency response modeling (e.g., MobiRescue for disaster logistics). Prosocial Consumer Behavior : Exploring how social capital and diversity drive innovation and policy compliance. Recent publications highlight trends in Reinforcement Learning for crisis management, Privacy-Preserving AI , and Freemium Pricing Models in digital markets. Her awards include the 2025 UVA Outstanding Researcher Award and the 2018 Mallen Award for motion picture studies. Natasha serves as an Area Editor for multiple journals, emphasizing Data Science in marketing. She has advised numerous PhD students and collaborated on projects analyzing Big Data in consumer mobility and platform economics.
Rebecca Diamond is the Class of 1988 Professor of Economics at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and holds a courtesy appointment in the Economics Department. Her research focuses on urban economics, housing policy, economic inequality, and labor markets. Key areas include analyzing rent control effects, gig economy dynamics, nutritional disparities, and spatial sorting of workers by skill. She advises doctoral students on topics like urban economics and public policy. Her work has been published in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Review of Economic Studies. Teaching responsibilities include courses on applied econometrics, public economics, and social insurance. She has been involved in doctoral training through practicums and independent studies. Her research has influenced policy debates on housing affordability, racial disparities in housing returns, and the impacts of high-skilled immigration on innovation. Positions: Professor of Economics (GSB), SIEPR Senior Fellow, Courtesy Professor (Economics) Key Research Themes: Urban policy, labor market inequality, gig economy, food deserts, rent control
Professor You-tien Hsing is the Pamela P. Fong Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the political economy of development in East Asia, particularly China, examining intersections of power, space, urbanization, cultural politics, and environmental governance. Education: PhD in City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley (1993). Her research integrates ethnographic methods with political economy analysis to explore how historical, geographical, and institutional factors shape social and environmental dynamics in China. Key themes include land battles, territorial politics, and the role of grassroots activism in state-society relations. Recent publications analyze urbanization, global-local capital interactions, and environmental politics in China. She has also co-edited works on social activism and urban-rural linkages. Scientific Awards: Pamela P. Fong Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies. She teaches courses on Global China, emphasizing critical engagement with China’s developmental trajectory through fieldwork, interviews, and theoretical frameworks.
Theo Arentze is a Full Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Department of the Built Environment, leading the Real Estate Management and Development group. He is affiliated with EAISI Health and EAISI Mobility research institutes. Education: MSc in Psychology (Cognitive Psychology & AI) from Groningen University, PhD from TU/e Urban Planning Research: Spatial choice behavior, decision support systems, activity-based modeling, agent-based simulation His research integrates bounded rationality into spatial choice models to enhance behavioral realism, with applications in real-estate management , neighborhood development , healthy cities , and hybrid work environments . Recent work includes child-friendly urban planning and energy-efficient housing impacts . Prominent article themes include: Hybrid work location decisions Urban public space affective experiences Child friendliness in residential choices Sustainable energy preferences Spatial decision support systems Social network modeling Scientific recognition includes: Best Poster Award (2025) - Computational Urban Planning Conference Long Paper of Distinction (2021) - Healthy Buildings Europe EuroFM Best Paper Award (2017) Pyke Johnson Award (2016) As an educator, he teaches courses in Urban Planning , Housing Economics , and Quantitative Research Methods . His multidisciplinary team combines expertise from psychology, sociology, and urban economics to create high-quality built environments through behavioral research.
Dr Philip O'Brien is a Senior Lecturer in the Urban Studies & Social Policy department at the University of Glasgow . His work bridges urban planning , land economics , and institutional theory , focusing on state-market dynamics in property development and policy frameworks like zoning and land value capture . Research Interests: Land and Property Development : Analyzing market-state interactions in urban development. Planning as Market Maker : Exploring how planning systems stimulate or constrain economic activity. Institutionalist Theory : Applying institutional analysis to planning and development processes. European Urban Policy : Comparative studies of zoning and regulatory frameworks across Europe. Publication Trends : His work spans urban economics , planning reform , and housing resilience , with a focus on zoning , land value capture , and market institutions . Recent articles examine Cultural Political Economy approaches to regional construction and European planning systems . Grants: Co-Investigator, Urban Retrofit UK (ESRC, 2024-2027, £1.5M) Co-Investigator, EqualHouse (Horizon Europe, 2024-2027, €3M) Lead on Scottish Land Commission projects and RICS Research Trust grants. Teaching: Convenes modules on MSc City Planning , MSc Real Estate , and International Real Estate Markets , emphasizing planning-process and institutional markets .
Filip Biljecki is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed at the Department of Architecture within the College of Design and Engineering and the Department of Real Estate at the NUS Business School, National University of Singapore. He is the founder and principal investigator of the NUS Urban Analytics Lab and was awarded the prestigious NUS Presidential Young Professorship in 2020. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications, his research bridges geomatic engineering, geospatial technologies, and urban data science to advance digital twins and data-driven urban planning. Dr. Biljecki's educational background includes: PhD in 3D GIS (cum laude), Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (2017) MSc in Geomatics, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (2010) BSc in Geodesy and Geoinformatics, University of Zagreb, Croatia (2008) His research interests focus on emerging urban data sources, particularly urban imagery, and their application in 3D city modeling, digital twins, and GeoAI. He explores how crowdsourcing and open science can inform cutting-edge techniques for urban sensing and analytics at city-scale. His work significantly contributes to establishing smart cities through innovative methods that integrate recent advancements in computer science, geomatics, and urban data science. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on street view imagery applications for urban analytics, digital twin development, and geospatial AI. His research spans multiple domains including urban morphology, environmental assessment, public health applications, and urban comfort analysis. The interdisciplinary nature of his work is evident in collaborations with researchers from diverse fields, producing impactful studies that address complex urban challenges through innovative methodological approaches. His notable scientific achievements include: Annual Teaching Excellence Award (ATEA), 2025 College Educator Award AY2023/2024, 2025 Urban Informatics Paper of the Year Award, 2023 Top 2% scientists worldwide (Stanford University), 2021 Presidential Young Professorship (NUS), 2020 As an educator, Dr. Biljecki has supervised dozens of students leading to publications in leading journals and placements at top universities and organizations. He has delivered talks at over 120 universities and organizations worldwide including MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and ETH Zurich. His research is supported through various grants and affiliations including his role as Principal Investigator at the Future Cities Lab Global at the Singapore-ETH Centre. The NUS Urban Analytics Lab, which he established, brings together scholars from diverse disciplines to drive research on making cities smarter and more data-driven. The lab has developed innovative tools like ZenSVI for street view imagery analysis and has produced influential research on urban digital twins, urban morphology, and GeoAI applications. Through his leadership, the lab continues to pioneer methods that advance data-driven urban planning and smart city development.
Katherine M. O'Regan is a Professor of Public Policy and Planning at NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. She serves as Faculty Director of both the Master of Science in Public Policy Program and the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. PhD in Economics from University of California at Berkeley Former Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (April 2014–January 2017) Her research focuses on poverty, spatial inequality, and housing policy, including residential segregation, concentrated disadvantage, and the impact of housing programs on neighborhoods. She has contributed to debates on affordable housing reforms, fair housing, and eviction practices in New York City. O'Regan has received teaching accolades from Berkeley, Yale, and NYU. Her work has been featured in prominent media outlets such as Bloomberg CityLab, Washington Post, and PBS Newshour, often addressing housing crises and urban policy challenges.
Steven D. Levitt is the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he directs the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. He has been affiliated with the university since 1997, following a PhD from MIT and BA from Harvard. Fields of Interest: Economics, Criminology, Education Policy, Real Estate, Political Economy, Social Policy, Game Theory Levitt's research spans empirical economic analysis across diverse domains, including crime, education, politics, and behavioral economics. His work often employs unconventional data sources and focuses on identifying causal relationships through natural experiments. Recent publications highlight intersections between incentives, social behavior, and policy outcomes. Notable awards include the John Bates Clark Medal (2004) and recognition as one of Time magazine's 100 People Who Shape Our World (2006). He is widely known for co-authoring the Freakonomics book series and blog, which popularized the application of economic principles to real-world phenomena. Contact: SLevitt@UChicago.edu
Kyeyoung Park is Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at UCLA, holding the Korea Times-Hankook Ilbo Endowed Chair in Korean-American Studies. She is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses on inequality, social justice, and the migration of people, particularly displaced populations and their relationship to political economy, critical race theory, and transnationalism. Her research spans Korean American communities in the United States and Korean diaspora communities in Latin America, examining how structural forces shape cultural beliefs and ideologies across different contexts. Ph.D., City University of New York (1990) Professor Park's research centers on urban anthropology, inequality across race, class, and gender dimensions, migration and diaspora studies, and transnational processes. She examines how structural imperatives of migration lead to transformations in gender, kinship, family, politics, and religion among Korean diaspora communities. Her work employs intersectional analysis to understand multi-ethnic relations, with particular focus on Korean communities in both the United States and Latin America, exploring how axes of inequality impact racial minorities and their relationships with each other in global contexts. Her recent scholarship demonstrates consistent focus on Korean diaspora communities across the Americas, bridging urban anthropology with critical race theory to examine how race, class, and gender intersect in immigrant experiences. She has made significant contributions to understanding Korean-Latino relations in Los Angeles and Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in South American textile industries, reflecting her broader interest in immigrant adaptation and inter-ethnic dynamics across diverse geographic settings. Professor Park has received numerous prestigious awards and grants for her scholarship: 1998 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies for "The Korean American Dream: Immigrants and Small Business in New York City" 1997-98 Visiting Scholar Award from the Russell Sage Foundation 2016-19 Research Grant from The Republic of Korea's Ministry of Education and Korean Studies Promotion Service 2008-09 Translation Grant from The Overseas Korea Foundation for "The Korean American Dream" 2008-09 AAP Faculty Recognition Award from UCLA Professor Park has secured substantial research funding throughout her career, including multiple grants from The Academy of Korean Studies, Korea Foundation, and UCLA research programs. Her funded projects have examined Korean diaspora communities across the Americas, with particular focus on transnational connections between Korean American and Latin American contexts. She has served as Principal Investigator on projects exploring Korean routes of migration in the Americas and second-generation Korean American transnationalism, demonstrating her sustained commitment to understanding immigrant experiences through anthropological and interdisciplinary lenses. Professor Park has been actively involved with UCLA's Center for Korean Studies (CKS) and the International Institute, where she served as Deputy Program Chair for Korean Studies in Latin America from 2006-2011. Her collaborative work extends to research teams examining Korean diaspora communities across the Americas, including partnerships with scholars in Latin America. She has also participated in interdisciplinary initiatives such as UCLA's Urban Humanities Institute Faculty Research Seminar, reflecting her commitment to cross-disciplinary approaches to understanding migration, diaspora, and transnational processes.
Jan K. Brueckner is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine, and a member of the Institute of Transportation Studies. He holds dual expertise in Urban Economics and Airline Economics, with affiliations spanning academia and policy research. His career includes roles at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and visiting positions at institutions like Sapienza University of Rome and Charles University in Prague. Education: PhD (Economics) from Stanford University (1976), A.B. (Economics) from UC Berkeley (1972). Research focuses on urban growth, fiscal federalism, transportation economics, and housing policy, with over 100 journal articles and 7 books. He has advised governments globally on land-use policies and airline regulations. Research highlights include analyzing urban sprawl, zoning regulations, airline alliances, and the impact of telework on cities. Awards include the John M. Quigley Medal (2015) and Walter Isard Award (2008). He chaired 49 doctoral committees and edited major journals like Journal of Urban Economics . Consulting experience includes advising the World Bank, U.S. Department of Transportation, and airlines on policy and market dynamics. His recent work explores post-pandemic urbanization, carbon reduction in aviation, and land-use regulation in China and India.
