Julia Levitt reports on the LSE Cities Programme, the centre’s dedicated teaching arm, and interviews Academic Director Fran Tonkiss on the challenges and opportunities involved in it: “The key skill is to be able to communicate across disciplinary divides,” says Fran Tonkiss. “We also take a very broad definition of design. It’s about designing institutions and policies as much as it is about designing built form.” Read the full article and interview on TheAtlantic.com.

Marking symbolically the world’s seven billionth human being today, Ricky Burdett comments on Expatica.com that he sees a promising future with people in cities more likely to have access to education than those in the countryside. “If you are educated, it is the first step to everything — it is the first step to economic and social well-being and also health.” Read the full article.

Ricky Burdett will moderate a morning session on Thursday 3 November at the Eurocities 2011: ‘Planning for People’ conference. The event is organised by the Eurocities network of major European cities and takes place from 2-5 November in Genoa. Read more about the event.

Urban@LSE is excited to announce that noted urban futurist and two-time TED speaker Alex Steffen will be speaking in a special lunchtime guest seminar from 12-2pm this Friday afternoon, 21 October, Wolfson Theatre in the New Academic Building, LSE. It is open to the general public, but space is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Find out more.

LSE Cities is looking to appoint a new Research Fellow. For more information or to apply, visit LSE’s Job site here. Deadline is 17 Nov 2011.

Burdett, who was director of the architecture biennale in 2006, commented to bdonline.co.uk on the PM’s surprising and widely controversial decision to replace Paolo Baratta as head of the Venice Biennale: “Baratta transformed the massive venue in Venice, bringing professionalism and verve to a fossilised bureaucracy…It is sad and depressing to see that local politics has once again won the day in a country that has so much to offer.” Read the full article (requires free registration).

Jose Castillo – an Urban Age advisor – was awarded the Latin America regional Holcim bronze award for his Urban regeneration master plan, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The gold and silver awards went to Urban Age advisory board members Alfredo Brillembourg and Alejandro Aravena respectively. The Holcim Awards is an international competition that recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts for sustainable construction on regional and global levels. Read more about the winners.