Centre staff

Executive

  • Ricky Burdett - photo

    Ricky Burdett

    Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics and Political Science
    Global Distinguished Professor, New York University

    Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age programme. His research interests focus on the interactions between the physical and social worlds in the contemporary city and how urbanisation affects social and environmental sustainability. He is a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University, a member of Council of the Royal College of Art in London and of the Quality Review Panel for the London Legacy Development Corporation. Burdett has been involved in regeneration projects across Europe and was Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. He was a member of the Urban Task Force which produced a major report for the UK government on the future of English cities in 1999 entitled ‘Towards an Urban Renaissance’. In addition to leading interdisciplinary research and teaching activities, he is a regular contributor to journals, books and media programmes on contemporary architecture and urbanism. He is co-editor of two books based on the Urban Age research project: The Endless City (2007) and Living in the Endless City (2011). In November 2012 Professor Burdett was invited to serve as a member of the Independent Airports Commission for the UK Government. 

  • Philipp Rode - photo

    Philipp Rode

    Executive Director, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Philipp Rode is Executive Director of LSE Cities and Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is Ove Arup Fellow with the LSE Cities Programme and co-convenes the LSE Sociology Course on 'City Making: The Politics of Urban Form'. As researcher and consultant he manages interdisciplinary projects comprising urban governance, transport, city planning and urban design. Rode organised Urban Age conferences in partnership with Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Society in ten cities bringing together political leaders, city mayors, urban practitioners, private sector representatives and academic experts. The focus of his current work is on cities and climate change which includes his role as coordinating author of the cities and buildings chapters for UNEP's Green Economy Report. He manages the Urban Age research efforts and recently co-authored Transforming Urban Economies (2011) and The Global MetroMonitor (2010); and published the reports Cities and Social Equity (2009) and Integrated City Making (2008). He has previously worked on several multidisciplinary research and consultancy projects in New York and Berlin and was awarded the Schinkel Urban Design Prize 2000.

  • Fran Tonkiss - photo

    Fran Tonkiss

    Academic Director, Cities Programme, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Fran Tonkiss is Reader in Sociology, and Director of the Cities Programme. She joined the Department of Sociology at LSE in 2004, and previously has taught at Goldsmiths College, and at the City University, London. Her research and teaching is in the fields of urban and economic sociology. Her interests in urban studies include cities and social theory, urban development and gentrification, urban divisions and public space. In economic sociology, her research focuses on markets, capitalism and globalisation, trust and social capital. Publications in these fields include Space, the City and Social Theory (2005), and Contemporary Economic Sociology: Globalisation, Production, Inequality (2006). She is the co-author of Market Society: Markets and Modern Social Theory (2001, with Don Slater), and co-editor of Trust and Civil Society (2000, with Andrew Passey). She is an editor of the British Journal of Sociology, and a member of the editorial board of Economy and society.

Centre staff

  • Sobia Ahmad Kaker - photo

    Sobia Ahmad Kaker

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Sobia Ahmad Kaker holds a postgraduate degree in Global Politics from the LSE, and is now pursuing a cross disciplinary PhD in cities, infrastructure, and political violence at Newcastle University. Her project analyses ‘enclavisation’ as a process that is closely tied to crises of governance and security in megacities of the global south. She has extensive professional experience as a researcher on governance, conflict and disaster management in Pakistan. She is also currently affiliated with the Center for Research and Security Studies (Pakistan) as a Visiting Research Fellow. Her research interests and expertise include urban conflict and violence, governance and local and global security.

  • Andrew Altman - photo

    Andrew Altman

    Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE Cities

    Andrew Altman is a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Cities. He was recently the founding Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company in London where he was responsible for leading the preparation of the post-games transformation of the 500-acre London 2012 Olympic Park - the largest regeneration project in the United Kingdom and Europe - into a new international growth centre. Prior to becoming Chief Executive for the Olympic Park, he was the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Planning, and Director of Commerce for the City of Philadelphia.

  • Karl Baker - photo

    Karl Baker

    BA (Hons) MSc

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Karl Baker recently graduated from the MSc City Design and Social Science programme at the LSE. He also holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science from Victoria University, Wellington. He has previously worked as a policy adviser for New Zealand's Ministry of Transport where he advised governments on priorities for transport infrastructure investment. He has worked on improving project evaluation methods to better understand the impact of transport infrastructure on the social, environmental and economic performance of cities.

    In London he has worked as a research consultant, collaborating with architectural offices and book publishers to connect city design with broader issues of global political economy and environmental sustainability. His Masters thesis on 'Conspicuous Production' investigated the potential of small-scale manufacturing industries for leading processes of regeneration in post-industrial urban contexts. He continues to research how urban design and planning policy can support small-scale industry in London.

  • Kiera Blakey - photo

    Kiera Blakey

    BA (Hons) MA

    Programme Coordinator, Communications Assistant, LSE Cities, London School of Economics

    Kiera Blakey is Programme Coordinator at Theatrum Mundi, an LSE Cities research project. She holds an MA in Philosophy and BA in Fine Art. Her main area of research is reviewing modes of measuring value in cultural organisations. Kiera has previously worked with the British Museum, Camden Arts Centre and Southwark Council examining structures of knowledge dissemination in the arts. Kiera is also curator at Legion TV, a contemporary arts space in East London.

  • Anne Marie Brady - photo

    Anne Marie Brady

    BA MA MSc

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Anne Marie is currently a PhD student in the Department of Social Policy. Her thesis is a qualitative investigation of Unemployment Benefit II recipients' experiences of job placement and skill training services under Germany's Hartz IV welfare reforms. Having receiving an MSc in social policy and planning from the LSE in 2006, she returned to Washington, DC where she worked for an organization that analysed social housing policies at the federal level (this included the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, Section 8 and Section 9 housing, housing as a platform for larger service provision, rental transformation and housing finance reform). In addition, she has an MA in medieval history from Fordham University in New York, New York and a BA in history and contemporary German literature from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

  • Ömer Çavuşoğlu - photo

    Ömer Çavuşoğlu

    BA MSc

    Project Manager, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Ömer Çavuşoğlu holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences and an MSc in City Design and Social Science. He joined Urban Age in 2008 during the build-up to the 2009 Istanbul Conference where he worked on the research, organisation and publication sides of the event. He co-ordinated the Urban Age City Surveys and the publication of Living in the Endless City. After a brief break, he assumed work to deliver the Electric City Conference Newspaper, the Centre's Impact Case Study for REF 2014 submission, its new publication by Routledge Press and continues to coordinate projects across the board.

  • Andrea Colantonio - photo

    Andrea Colantonio

    BA MA PhD

    Research Fellow, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Dr Andrea Colantonio is an urban geographer and economist who specialises in the investigation of the complex linkages between urban growth, sustainability and the geographies of development in both developing and developed countries. From 2006 to 2009, he was lead researcher and project manager for a major international study concerning social sustainability and urban regeneration in EU cities, including Cardiff, Rotterdam, Turin, Barcelona and Leipzig, which was carried out in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. His main research interests are in the areas of economic and social development, institutional governance and urban growth, with special emphasis on sustainability policy, planning and assessment methods.

  • Sarah Davis - photo

    Sarah Davis

    BA (Hons) FCCA

    Management Accounts Coordinator, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Sarah Davis joined the Urban Age in June 2009. She manages and operates the finance activities of the programme. She acts as accounts co-ordinator for all accounting and daily financial procedures, as well as providing daily & management accounting support to management. She has previously worked as an accountant for National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the Automobile Association (AA), Thorn EMI and Foster Wheeler. She holds a BA(Hons) in Sociology from the University of Reading and is a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant. She is married with three children.

  • Graham Floater - photo

    Graham Floater

    Principal Research Fellow, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Graham Floater is a Principal Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Programme Director of the Stern programme on the Economics of Green Cities. He is Director of the Climate Centre, a group of researchers and consultants who specialise in the low carbon economy.

    Previously, he was deputy director at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and a senior advisor to the Prime Minister. He led various Reviews for No.10 including the Eliasch Review on international financial frameworks to reduce global deforestation and the Lazarowicz Review on global carbon trading. He led the creation of the UK's £1 billion Low Carbon Industrial Strategy covering clean technology, energy efficiency and transport, and later went on to coordinate a review of the UK’s energy delivery landscape, including the creation of the Green Investment Bank and reform of Ofgem.

    He oversaw the Stern Team on the economics of climate change, and represented Lord Stern on the steering board of China’s Economics of Low Carbon Development. He held various positions in HM Treasury including private secretary to a Cabinet Minister and head of European economic negotiations. At the European Commission, he was an EU trade negotiator in the WTO.

    He has a first class degree in natural science from Oxford University, a postgraduate degree in economics from Cambridge University, and a PhD in population risk modelling from Queensland University.

  • Suzanne Hall - photo

    Suzanne Hall

    BArch MCPUD PhD

    Lecturer and Research Fellow, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Suzanne Hall is an urban ethnographer and lecturer in the Department of Sociology, LSE. She has practised as an architect and urban designer in South Africa. From 1997 to 2003 she focused on the role of design in rapidly urbanising, poor and racially segregated areas in Cape Town, and her work has been published and exhibited nationally and internationally. She teaches in the MSc City Design and Social Science programme at the LSE and has taught in the Departments of Architecture at the University of Cambridge and the University of Cape Town. Her research and teaching interests include social and economic forms of inclusion and exclusion, urban multiculture, the imagination and design of the city, and ethnography and visual methods. She is a recipient of the Rome Scholarship in Architecture (1998-1999) and the LSE's Robert McKenzie Prize for outstanding Ph.D. research (2010). She co-edited (with Dinardi and Fernández) Writing Cities (2010, LSE), and her research monograph, City, street and citizen: The measure of the ordinary, was published in June 2012.

  • Catarina Heeckt - photo

    Catarina Heeckt

    BA (Hons) MSc

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Catarina Heeckt received her MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the LSE in 2011. She also holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science and International Development from McGill University in Montreal. Her dissertation focused on promoting accountability in corporate water management and she has done extensive research on furthering transparency in the private sector.

    After graduating from the LSE, she spent a year working for corporate communications consultancy Context in London and New York, supporting clients such as Cisco Systems and McGraw-Hill in their internal and external sustainability communications and strategy. Prior to joining Context, she worked for the Carbon Disclosure Project on the newly established CDP Cities Team, helping large cities around the world measure and report their carbon emissions. Before that, she was a researcher at the Institute of Health and Social Policy in Montreal, where she worked on creating a global database of city-level environmental indicators for the Institute's Sustainable Cities in a Changing Climate programme.

  •  

    John Hemmings

    Executive assistant, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    John Hemmings has more than four years of administrative and research experience, which he gained in a think tank in Whitehall. He has also spent a number of years in education. In addition to his current role, Mr. Hemmings is engaged in a doctoral thesis in the International Relations department at LSE and is a non-resident research fellow at Pacific Forum, CSIS.

  • Anna Livia Johnston - photo

    Anna Livia Johnston

    BA (Hons) Dip. Law

    Administrator, Cities Programme, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Anna holds a degree in modern languages (Mandarin Chinese) from the University of Westminster and a Graduate Diploma in Law (City University). She has lived and studied in China and the US and worked in a wide range of roles before coming to LSE.

  • Adam Kaasa - photo

    Adam Kaasa

    BA (Hons) MSc ATCL

    Research Officer, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Adam Kaasa is a Research Officer at LSE Cities working on the Theatrum Mundi project, bringing together urban practitioners with people from the performing and visual arts. He is an MPhil/PhD Candidate at the Cities Programme, LSE focusing on the circulations of ideas about architecture and urbanism, with a specific focus on urban forms and modernities, their effect on the built form of cities, and emerging ideas of urban citizenship. As a researcher he has completed several projects and publications on the city, on gender and sexuality, and on cultural and urban theory. He holds an MSc in Cites, Space and Society from the LSE, a BA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of Alberta, and is an Associate of Trinity College London in Speech and Drama.

  • Jens Kandt - photo

    Jens Kandt

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Jens Kandt works as a researcher at LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science, where his work focuses on quantitative geographic analysis of mega-city regions around the world. He has studied at University of Kaiserslautern (Germany) and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (India), and has obtained his Master’s degree (Dipl. Ing.) in spatial planning from University of Dortmund (Germany). He is particularly interested in patterns of urbanisation in developing countries and emerging economies.

  • Tessa Norton - photo

    Tessa Norton

    MA MA

    Communications Manager, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Tessa Norton has ten years’ experience in communications and publishing, specialising in international development, communities and urban regeneration. Prior to joining LSE Cities she worked at the international NGO EveryChild, working on audience engagement, and leading and redeveloping the largest individual funding stream in the organisation. Before this she was responsible for corporate communications at the Community Development Foundation, and worked as a commissioning editor on social policy titles at Thomson Sweet and Maxwell. She is particularly interested in culture and public space, and holds an MA in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London specialising in public and participatory art, and a degree in Law from Cambridge University.

  • Antoine Paccoud - photo

    Antoine Paccoud

    BA MSc PhD

    Research officer, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    At LSE Cities, Antoine Paccoud works on the global comparison of metropolitan regions and the extent to which they depart from national conditions. His focus is on methods that ensure spatial and data comparability as well as a geographically representative sample. He contributes research to various projects at LSE Cities and has been centrally involved in the centre’s work on Cities and Social Equity (2009), the Grand Paris International Consultation (2009), the Global Metro Monitor (2010) and the Cities chapter of UNEP’s Green Economy Report (2011). His PhD from the Geography Department at LSE investigates Haussmann’s planning practice through the lens of Alain Badiou’s philosophy. The thesis posits that a particular type of social science is compatible with this philosophy: one that is concerned with isolating and singularising particular political sequences that break through the differences structuring a situation. Such a sequence can be found in Haussmann’s early attempts to reclaim urban space from power and capital.

  • Neil Reeder - photo

    Neil Reeder

    MSc (Econ) MSc (Econ)

    Research officer, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Neil Reeder specialises in social investment and public service economics and works at LSE Cities on a project sponsored by the European Investment Bank on reviewing and developing ways to assess the wider social and environmental outcomes of social investments. A Fellow of the Young Foundation, he previously headed their Preventative Investment Programme, spanning research on agendas from public health to homelessness in the UK and overseas. In other roles, as a civil servant he led work on local government transformation and efficiency at the Department for Communities and Local Government; directed analysis for the Gershon Review of efficiency in public services at HM Treasury; and project managed the Department of Trade and Industry’s preliminary assessment of the effect of European Monetary Union on British industry. He has masters degrees in Economics and Operational Research from the London School of Economics.

  • Emma Rees - photo

    Emma Rees

    BA (Hons)

    Executive and Admin Assistant, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Emma Rees has gained valuable experience over the last couple of years in various agencies of the NHS. This included administrative roles for the NHS in a major hospital and more recently employment within the Deanery of the University of London. She has had the opportunity to travel extensively overseas and spent four of her schooling years in Malaysia, taught at a summer school in Madrid and worked and travelled around Australia. In addition to this she holds a BA in English and History from the University of Southampton.

  • Andrea Rota - photo

    Andrea Rota

    BA MSc

    Researcher, Web Developer and Operations Co-ordinator, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Andrea Rota joined the Urban Age in 2009 and has been working on the Urban Age website, assisting with the development of new content, bringing legacy information in line with modern web standards and improving the web information workflow, in order to make research information more easily accessible to a wider public. He has been working for over a decade as a consultant on information infrastructures and content management systems entirely based on free software. He is currently an MPhil/PhD student in the department of Sociology at the LSE, focusing on the role of the Internet in everyday life for young university students in London. He holds a BA in Philosophy (Milano, Italy) and a MSc in Methods for social research (Firenze, Italy).

  • Andrew Sherwood - photo

    Andrew Sherwood

    LLB LLM

    Centre Manager, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Andrew Sherwood has 8 years of administrative experience within the Higher Education sector, having worked in programme management roles and more recently as European Institute Manager (LSE), before joining LSE Cities. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations and management of the Centre’s activities. He holds an LLB Law (Kings College London) and an LLM Law, specialising in Public International Law (University College London).

  • Jonathan Silver - photo

    Jonathan Silver

    BA (Hons) MA

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Jonathan Silver is a geographer who specializes in the governance of cities in Africa, particularly in Ghana and South Africa. His principal research interests explore the intersections between emerging climate change and energy agendas, urban infrastructures and issues of poverty and inequality. He has recently submitted his PhD at the Department of Geography, Durham University, 'Reconfiguring electricity infrastructures in Accra and Cape Town; Understanding the political ecologies of networked urbanism'. Before that he had completed an MA at the Department of Geography, Manchester University and worked extensively in various international research contexts.

  • Duncan Smith - photo

    Duncan Smith

    Research Officer, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Duncan is an urban GIS researcher interested in city form, sustainability and visualisation. Prior to joining LSE he studied geography and GIS at Edinburgh University and worked as a transport consultant. He completed his PhD at CASA UCL in 2011 on the topic of accessibility and transport sustainability in the London region.

  • Myfanwy Taylor - photo

    Myfanwy Taylor

    MPhys MSc

    Research Officer, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Myfanwy Taylor is a Research Officer at LSE Cities, and a MPhil/PhD Candidate at University College London’s Urban Laboratory, where she studies alternative economies in London. Myfanwy joined LSE Cities in 2010 to work on the Barcelona case study for the Next Urban Economy project. More recently, she led a variety of research activities on urban health and well-being for the 2011 Urban Age conference in Hong Kong. Prior to entering academia, Myfanwy was a civil servant at the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office.

  • Adam Towle - photo

    Adam Towle

    BA(Hons) Arch. MArch

    Urban Designer and Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Adam is an experienced designer, researcher and strategist who joined LSE CIties in 2013 to help with the Urban Age research efforts.

    He previously worked for Design for London – the regional design resource supported by the Mayor of London – where he made a significant contribution to the planning and steering of development across the city; he has helped champion good design, led numerous complex urban regeneration projects, and worked on the formulation of policy and the creation of a range of studies, visions, planning frameworks and masterplans.

    In 2009, Adam was awarded a RIBA President’s Medal Commendation for his dissertation “Negotiating the Spectacle” on Dubai and the accelerated transformation of this city.  He has co-authored articles on urban regeneration and worked on research projects with the University of Sheffield School of Architecture, Architects for Aid (now Article 25), and CABE. He supports the MA in Spatial Planning and Urban Design at the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, London Metropolitan University and is a regular guest critic at the Bartlett School of Planning.

  • Shan Vahidy - photo

    Shan Vahidy

    BA MA

    Programme Administrator, Urbanism and the Humanities Programme, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Shan Vahidy holds a BA (English & Politics) and a MA (Modern Literature). Prior to joining LSE Cities, she worked in the editorial department at Allen Lane, the non-fiction imprint of Penguin Books. She focused largely on history, politics, philosophy and economics, including projects with the British Museum and the BBC. She arrived in London via a schooling in Karachi and several years working in kitchens in Yorkshire.

  • Savvas Verdis - photo

    Savvas Verdis

    PhD

    Senior Research Fellow, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Savvas is a Senior Research Fellow working in the advisory service of LSE Cities. He consults city and national governments on urban development strategies and the evaluation of urban projects. His most recent consultation includes an infrastructure feasibility study in the Amsterdam metropolitan area on behalf of the Dutch Government.

    Savvas has been teaching at the LSE Cities Programme since 2001 first with Richard Sennett and David Frisby and now co-convenes a course on urban project evaluation with Philipp Rode.

    From 2009 to 2012, he was founder and CEO of Rankdesk, a property ranking algorithm for residential investors. He received a PhD from Cambridge University in 2007.

  • Astrid Wood - photo

    Astrid Wood

    BA MCP

    Researcher, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Astrid Wood is currently completing her PhD in the Department of Geography at University College London. She has a Master of City Planning degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Development and Architecture from Hampshire College. She has experience working in China, India, Spain, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States. Her PhD research, “Peripatetic Planning: Tracing the Mobility of Bus Rapid Transit through South African Cities” investigates the process in which South African cities learned of and implemented bus rapid transit (BRT) as a practice of policy circulation. The thesis traces the process of adoption by investigating the assemblage of the policy model, policy actors, context and timing that further the uptake of BRT.

  • Austin Zeiderman - photo

    Austin Zeiderman

    BA MESc PhD

    Research Fellow, LSE Cities, London School of Economics and Political Science

    Austin Zeiderman is an interdisciplinary scholar who specialises in the cultural and political dimensions of cities in Latin America, with a specific focus on Colombia. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University as well as a Master of Environmental Science degree from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Colgate University.

    In general, his research adopts an ethnographic and historical approach to shifting paradigms of urbanism. He is particularly interested in how cities are planned, built, governed, and lived in anticipation of uncertain futures. Based on over twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, his doctoral dissertation, Life at Risk: Governing the Future in Bogotá, Colombia, examined the emergence of risk as a rationality of urban planning and governance. Sections drawn from the thesis are forthcoming in Environment and Planning A and American Ethnologist. He has received fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. Raised in Philadelphia, he has previously worked on urban and environmental issues in Baltimore and San Francisco.

 
Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+