Richard Burdett is Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics (LSE) and founding director of the LSE Cities Programme, a research and teaching centre which explores links between architecture, urban design and urban society. His latest appointment is as Principal Design Adviser for the London 2012 Olympics. Previously he was architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 - 2006, member of the Greater London Authority's Architecture + Urbanism Unit and sat on the City of Barcelona's Quality Committee. At the LSE he directs the ‘Urban Age’, a series of international conferences on global cities funded by Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society. Burdett was founder of the 9H Gallery and the Architecture Foundation in London, and has been a key player in promoting design excellence amongst public and private sector organisations in the UK and Europe. He was Director of the 2006 Architecture Biennale in Venice on the subject of ‘Cities: architecture and society’ and is chairman of the Jury for the 2007 Mies van der Rohe Prize. Educated in Rome, Burdett lives in London with his wife and two children. .

Ute Weiland | Coordinator AHS/LSE

Since September 2003 Ute Weiland has been in charge of press and political contacts of Alfred Herrhausen Society, Deutsche Bank's socio-political think tank. In 1997 she co-founded the Erich Pommer Institute for Media Law and Media Management at the University of Potsdam and was its assistant managing director until 2003. Born in the former Eastern Germany she graduated from the Academy of Music in Weimar. After unification she became chief of staff to the Secretary of State for education in Saxony. Ute Weiland is a member of the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange of the Bertelsmann Foundation and young leader of the Atlantik Brücke.

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Miguel Kanai | Project Researcher

Miguel Kanai is an Argentine-Japanese urbanist interested in the relationship between economic restructuring and the social and spatial transformations of cities. He holds a bachelors degree in Integrated Human Studies from Kyoto University and an masters in Urban Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research. He has studied, lived and worked in cities in four different continents and consulted for public sector agencies and community-based organisations on issues of urban development. Prior to joining the Urban Age project, Kanai was a PhD student in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, a degree he expects to complete after his engagement with the project.

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Sarah Ichioka | Research Associate

Sarah Ichioka is currently working closely with Ricky Burdett to develop the content for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale. Before joining the Urban Age, she coordinated several interdisciplinary consultancy projects at the LSE and helped to teach several Cities Programme courses. Ichioka also served as a Housing and Community Development Fellow at New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where she gained a breadth of experience in land use planning, housing policy, and local economic development. She is trained as an urban designer and historian, holding an MSc in City Design and Social Science from the LSE and a BA from Yale University.

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Bruno Moser | Research Associate

Bruno Moser is an architect and urban designer. He is a research associate with Enterprise LSE Cities where his work focuses on urban design and spatial aspects of consultancy projects. He is an expert in Geographical Information systems working from neighbourhood to city and regional scales analysing the spatial distribution of socio-economic data. After obtaining a Masters in architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) he worked as an architect in Switzerland. He went on to study at the LSE obtaining the MSc in City Design and Social Science in 2003.

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Sophie Body-Gendrot | Director

Sophie Body-Gendrot is a Professor of political science and American studies, the Director of the Center of urban studies at Sorbonne-Paris IV and a CNRS researcher. For several years, she chaired a European network on the dynamics of violence in 18 European countries and was the editor in chief of the French Review of American studies. Her research focuses on comparative public policy, urban violence, ethnic and racial issues and citizen participation. Among her most recent books are The Urban Moment (co-ed R. Beauregard), (1999), The Social Control of Cities ? A Comparative Perspective, (2000), Social Capital and Social Citizenship (co-ed M. Gittell), (2003) and La Société Américaine après le 11 Septembre (2002), Villes : La Fin de la Violence ? (2001). A frequent visiting scholar at New York University, she has published numerous articles in Europe and in the U.S.

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Yung Ho Chang | Head of Architecture Department

Yung Ho Chang is the Principal Architect of Atelier FCJZ and the Head of Architecture Department at MIT. Prior to MIT, he was the Head and still is, a Professor of the Peking University Graduate Center of Architecture. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984, became a licensed architect in the U.S. in 1989, and has been practicing in China since 1992, establishing Atelier Feichang Jianzhu (FCJZ) in 1993. He has won a number of prizes, including: First Place in the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition (1987), a Progressive Architecture Citation Award (1996), and the 2000 UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts. He has published a number of monographs and books and taught at various USA architecture schools, including Ball State, Michigan, U.C. Berkeley, Rice, and Harvard, where he was the Kenzo Tange Chair Professor of 2002.

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Gerald Frug | Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law

Gerald Frug is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Educated at the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School, he worked as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in Washington, D.C., and as Health Services Administrator of the City of New York. In 1974 he began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, before joining the Harvard law faculty in 1981. Professor Frug's specialty is local government law. He has published dozens of articles on the topic and is the author, among other works, of Dispelling the Myth of Home Rule (with David Barron and Rick Su) (2004), A casebook on Local Government Law, 3rd edition (with David Barron and Richard T. Ford) (2001), and City Making: Building Communities without Building Walls, (1999).

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Bruce Katz | Vice President and Director

Bruce Katz is a Vice President at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The Metro Program seeks to redefine the challenges facing American cities and metropolitan areas and promote innovative solutions to help communities grow in more inclusive, competitive and sustainable ways. Katz is a frequent writer and commentator on urban and metropolitan issues. He is the co-editor of Redefining Urban and Suburban America (2003) and editor of Reflections on Regionalism (2000). Before joining Brookings, Katz served as Chief of Staff to Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has also served as the staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Katz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics.

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Hermann Knoflacher | Professor of Transport Planning

Professor Hermann Knoflacher holds the chair in transport planning and traffic engineering at the University of Technology in Vienna. He has a civil engineering and a natural science degree as well as a PhD in Transportation Engineering from the University of Vienna. In 1968 Knoflacher established the Institute of Transport Science, in the Austrian Transport Safety Board which carried out studies on transportation planning, traffic safety and human behaviour. He headed the institute until 1985. In 1971 he established a consulting company, which has completed over 250 research projects as well as carrying out the majority of transport plans for Austrian cities and regions, and national and international bodies. He has taught at the University of Technology in Vienna since 1972 and was advisor to the Minister of Transport for over eight years. Knoflacher is the author of over 500 publications on transport planning, traffic safety and transport policy.

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Dieter Laepple | Professor

Dieter Laepple is Professor of Urban and Regional Economics and Head of the Research Unit on 'Urban and Regional Economics and Sociology' at the University of Technology Hamburg-Harburg. He is currently a Research Fellow of the 'Ladenburg Kolleg "Zwischenstadt' of the Daimler-Benz Foundation, Ladenburg and is a member of the German Academy of Urban and Spatial Planning. Laepple has served on a variety of different advisory boards and his current research focuses on the restructuring of the economic bases of cities and regions and urban labour markets. Laepple frequently publishes in, amongst others, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and the Journal of Economic and Social Geography.

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Saskia Sassen | Professor

Saskia Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. Her new books are Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages ( Princeton University Press 2006), and A Sociology of Globalization (Norton 2006). She has just completed for UNESCO a five-year project on sustainable human settlement for which she set up a network of researchers and activists in over 30 countries. Her most recent books are the edited Global Networks, Linked Cities,(New York and London: Routledge 2002) and the coedited Digital Formations: New Architectures for Global Order (Princeton University Press 2005). There are now fully updated editions of The Global City (2001) and Cities in a World Economy (Sage/Pine Forge 2006. Her books are translated into sixteen languages. She serves on several editorial boards and is an advisor to various international bodies. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and Chair of the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA). Her comments have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, the International Herald Tribune, Vanguardia, Clarin, the Financial Times, among others.

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Richard Sennett | Professor of Sociology

Richard Sennett is a sociologist and the School Professor of Social and Cultural Theory at the LSE and Bemis Professor of Social Sciences at MIT. His research interests include the relationship between urban design and urban society, urban family patterns, the urban welfare system, the history of cities and the changing nature of work. He has served as a consultant on urban policy to the Labour party and is a frequent commentator in the press. His books include The Culture of the New Capitalism, (Yale, 2006), Respect in an Age of Inequality, (Penguin, 2003), The Corrosion of Character (1998), The Fall of Public Man (1996), Flesh and Stone (1994). is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of the Arts, and the Academia Europea. He is past president of the American Council on Work and the former Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities. Sennett was closely involved in the Mayors' Institute in the USA which has inspired the European Mayors' Conference organised by the LSE Cities Programme.

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Anthony Williams  | Mayor of Washington DC
City of Washington DC

Anthony A. Williams began serving as the fourth Mayor of the District of Columbia in 1999. He is now serving his second term in office which extends until 2006. During his first term, Mayor Williams helped spark a renaissance in Washington, DC. He and his administration have consistently produced a balanced budget, while generating economic stability and affordable housing. One of the cornerstones of Mayor Williams' tenure has been creating a friendly government that listens to citizens through town hall meetings and citizen summits. In his 2003 inauguration speech, He named three key priorities for the city: education, public safety, and expanding opportunity for all the District's citizens. Mayor Williams is vice president of the National League of Cities (NLC). This puts him in line to serve as NLC president in 2005. The NLC is the oldest and largest national organisation representing municipal governments throughout the United States.

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David Adjaye | Principal

David Adjaye is recognised as one of the leading young British architects of his generation. He formed a partnership in 1994 and quickly built a reputation as an architect with an artistic vision. Adjaye/Associates has won a number of prestigious commissions including the Idea Store, a new-build library in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets; the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway; the second annual Frieze Art Fair pavilion, Regents Park, London; and the Bernie Grant Centre, a theatre, cafe and square in Tottenham, London. He has completed a number of private commissions for some of Britain's most celebrated visual artists, including Chris Ofili, with whom he designed the British contribution to the Venice Biennale in 2003. Adjaye teaches and lectures internationally.

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Andy Altman  | President and Chief Executive Officer

Andrew Altman served for the past five years as the planning director for Washington D.C. under Mayor Anthony A. Williams, and was recently appointed the first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation that was founded to guide the ambitious regeneration of the capital's waterfront. This project has been recognised as one of the boldest and most innovative planning initiatives currently in the United States. Altman is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution where he will serve as a principal researcher and advisor to the Metropolitan Policy Program. At Brookings he will work closely closely with Bruce Katz on the development of a new transformative agenda for cities. Altman has been the recipient of numerous fellowships including the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. Altman holds a Masters in City Planning from M.I.T.

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Joan Clos | Mayor of Barcelona
City of Barcelona

Joan Clos has been Mayor of Barcelona since 1997. In 1999, he was elected to a four-year term, and was then re-elected in the municipal elections of May 2003. He is also president of Educating Cities, president of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), president of the Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis)and vice-president of United Cities and Local Authorities (UCLG),the major association of cities. He graduated in medicine, specialising in epidemiology, community medicine and health-resource management. In 1979, he joined the local government as director of Health Services and was later the coordinator of the Department of Public Health. He was elected to Barcelona City Council in 1983 and named head of the Department of Health. In 1987, he was appointed councilor/president of the district of Ciutat Vella, the historic centre of the city, and undertook the task of the comprehensive regeneration of this area.

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Frank Duffy  | Founder
DEGW, London and New York

Rem Koolhaas | Principal

Rem Koolhaas founded the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975 with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp and has been involved in building and urban planning projects ever since. OMA's most important projects include: Masterplan City Center, Lille; H-project, Seoul; Educatorium, Utrecht; Kunsthal, Rotterdam; Nexus Housing, Fukuoka; and Dutch House, Holland. Koolhaas is Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at GSD Harvard where he teaches and conducts research into a current urban-architectural conditions throughout the world. Educated at the Architectural Association School in London 1968-1972, he produced the Berlin Wall as Architecture (1970) and Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture (1972). Koolhaas is the author of Mutations (2001), OMA 30: 30 Colours (1999), and OMA Rem Koolhaas Living, Vivre, Leben (1999) and in 1995, he published SMLXL, a book that documents the work of OMA and Koolhaas' interest in contemporary society, building and urban development.

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Enrique Penalosa | former Mayor of Bogotá
City of Bogota

Enrique Penalosa is an accomplished public official, economist and administrator who holds a BA in Economics and History from Duke University, masters in Management at the Institut International D’Administration Publique and a DESS in Public Administration at the University of Paris II. As Mayor, Penalosa successfully promoted sustainable development and was instrumental in creating a new, highly successful bus-based transit system (TransMilenio). Penalosa, an engaging speaker and visionary, spearheaded large improvements to the city centre including the recuperation of plazas, creation of a large park in an area previously overrun by crime, and the transformation of a major downtown avenue into a vibrant pedestrian public space. Following his term as Mayor, Mr. Penalosa became a visiting scholar at New York University, where for three and a half years he was conducting research and writing a book on a new urban-development model for Developing Country Cities. During the same period he served as a consultant on urban development issues in Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, Europe and the USA. Penalosa is currently the President of the "For the Country We Wish and Want Foundation" www.porelpaisquequeremos.com in Bogotá and a candidate for the Presidency of Colombia.

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Hashim Sarkis | Professor

Hashim Sarkis is the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies. He teaches design studios and courses in the history and theory of architecture. Sarkis is a practicing architect between Cambridge and Lebanon. His projects include a housing complex for the fishermen of Tyre, a park in downtown Beirut, two schools in the North Lebanon region, and several urban and landscape projects. In the past, Sarkis was a lecturer at MIT in the Departments of Architecture, Urban Studies and Planning. He has also taught at RISD, Yale University, the American University of Beirut and in Barcelona. He is author of several books and articles including Circa 1958: Lebanon in the Pictures and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis (2003), editor of CASE: Le Corbusier's Venice Hospital (2001), co-editor with Peter G. Rowe of Projecting Beirut (1998), and executive editor of the CASE publication series.

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Deyan Sudjic | Director

Deyan Sudjic is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art. He was the Director of Glasgow 1999: UK City of Architecture and Design, during which he was responsible for the opening of Scotland's Centre of Architecture and the City, and the construction of a prototype inner city housing project. Sudjic was the editor of Domus, the Milan based magazine of architecture and design from 2000-2004, and director of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002. He is the author of the 100 Mile City (1992), an account of the shifting nature of urbanism and The Edifice Complex to be published by Penguin in 2005. He has curated exhibitions at the Royal Academy, the British Museum and the ICA in London, at the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, and at the McLellan Galleries in Glasgow.

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Alejandro Zaera Polo | Joint Director

Alejandro Zaera Polo studied at the E.T.S. of Architecture in Madrid and received a masters (MARCHII) degree from Harvard Graduate school of Design in 1991. Together with Farshid Moussavi he founded Foreign Office Architects in 1992. FOA is an international practice of architecture and urban design, dedicated to the exploration of contemporary urban conditions, lifestyles and construction technologies. Projects realised include the Yokohama International Port Terminal in Japan, and the Barcelona Forum Park in Spain. Besides his architectural work Alejandro Zaera Polo is currently the Dean of the Berlage Institute and lectures at several architectural schools around the world. His critical and theoretical work has been published in international magazines and a recent monograph on the work of the practice has appeared as part of the 2G series, a major publication on the Yokohama Terminal has been published by Actar.

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