A number of DUSP alums, students, and faculty members participated in the recent "National Conference on Planning History" in Oakland, CA, organized by the Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH). The Oakland conference was the largest in its 23-year history, demonstrating how research into the history of city planning is growing as cities face increasingly complex and intractable problems, and planners seek answers to today's challenges in past approaches.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 15, 2009

Alice Amsden, Professor of Political Economy in DUSP's IDG program group, has spent decades focusing on issues of development and poverty eradication. Recently, she was appointed by the United Nations secretary-general to a three-year seat on the U.N. Committee on Development Policy, a subsidiary of the U.N. Economic and Social Council. The 24-member committee provides inputs and independent advice to the council on emerging cross-sectoral development issues and on international cooperation for development. The MIT News Office recently talked with her about international development. Read the whole interview here.

The world is experiencing the worst economic crisis since 1929. China is no exception, but within this crisis planners see unique opportunities, challenges, and questions for the world's largest country. How does the rapid urbanization in China make a difference in dealing with the economic downturn? Will urban development be a victim of this crisis, or can it provide potential solutions? Is job creation the most important priority of China's cities, or are there other aspects of growth to consider? This year, the MIT/DUSP "China Planning Network" is dedicating its annual CPN China Week to examine these questions.

DUSP students prepared a background report for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) called, "Enabling Environmental Justice: Assessment of Participatory Tools."

Click here to view it.

This Spring, students in Professor Phil Thompson's "CityScope" class (11.004J) will help develop implementation strategies for the "retrofitting" component of the new administration's Economic Stimulus package.

Visitors to the MIT World site can find over over 30 videos featuring DUSP faculty, including lectures, special talks and events, and the complete program of the Department's 75th Anniversary Symposium on "Changing Cities." We've pasted on below, to give you a preview.

To see it in all its glory, click the image, or visit the Wordle Gallery.

DUSP's own Xavier de Souza Briggs, associate professor of sociology and urban planning, has been named associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and will be on a two-year professional leave effective Inauguration Day.

In his new position, Xav will oversee six cabinet agencies -- the departments of housing and urban development, treasury, transportation, justice, commerce and homeland security.

Established in 1988, the Award honors an individual or organization whose work embodies and advances the Lynchian tradition, as developed in his seminal works, Image of the City (1960), What Time is this Place? (1972), Good City Form (1981) and Site Planning (1984). Nominees may have been responsible for plans, books, research, designed projects, media productions, public processes, or similar contributions to merit the award. This year's award committee is chaired by John de Monchaux, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Planning at MIT.

As part of the MIT-Portugal Program, researchers from MIT and Portugal (including DUSP Professors Chris Zegras and Carlo Ratti) are collaborating on a "model-based data fusion" initiative, one element of the larger CityMotion project. CityMotion aims to develop a knowledge infrastructure, computational models, and user applications that draw from and effectively integrate heterogeneous real-time information about transportation-related resources. The ultimate objectives are to improve: the transportation user experience by improving system reliability and facilitating, for example, easy transfer between different travel modes; service provision, such as by buses and trains, by enabling more responsive service deployment; and longer-term planning capabilities, by enriching the necessary data and analytical techniques.

Adèle Naudé Santos, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, is being honored with the 2009 Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, given by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning had the pleasure to welcome Professor Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 for a lunch discussion sponsored by the seminar series "Spaces of Contention and Competing Citizenships" and the Housing, Community and Economic Development group.