Shaping Urban Futures

Aromar Revi has established himself as a pioneering figure in sustainable urban development as the founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), India's first prospective National University focused on urbanization. His academic foundation includes degrees from IIT-Delhi and the Law and Management schools of the University of Delhi. With over 35 years of interdisciplinary experience, he has emerged as a global thought leader in sustainable development, public policy, and climate science. His extensive work includes leading 125 major research and consulting assignments, publishing over 95 peer-reviewed publications, and helping structure development investments exceeding $8 billion across multiple countries. As Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), he successfully championed the inclusion of urban development in the UN's 2030 agenda through SDG 11. His expertise in climate science is evidenced by his role as Coordinating Lead Author of the 2018 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. As one of South Asia's leading disaster mitigation experts, he has directed emergency teams for ten major natural disasters affecting over five million people. His influence extends across academia, policy, and practice, having lectured at over 90 universities worldwide and advised numerous governments and international organizations on sustainable

Juan Carlos Duque serves as a Full Professor in the School of Applied Sciences and Engineering at EAFIT University in Medellín, Colombia, where he founded and directs the Research in Spatial Economics (RiSE) group. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Business Studies from the University of Barcelona and an MSc in Economics and Business from Pompeu Fabra University. As a world-leading expert in region design and spatiotemporal analysis, he holds an affiliated faculty position at the Center for Geospatial Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. His expertise is recognized through his editorial board memberships at prestigious journals including the International Regional Science Review, Computers Environment and Urban Systems, and Computational Urban Science. His consulting portfolio includes work with major international organizations such as The World Bank, UN-Habitat, Inter-American Development Bank, and the European Commission, demonstrating the practical application of his research in spatial economics and regional development.

Michael Keith serves as Director of the PEAK Urban Research programme and brings extensive experience in both academia and public service. His academic leadership includes serving as Director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University until 2019, coordinating Urban Transformations for the Economic and Social Research Council until 2021, and co-directing the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities. His research focuses on migration-related urban change, with recent publications including "Urban Transformations and Public Health in the Emergent City" and "African Cities and Collaborative Futures" (Manchester University Press), along with "The Unfinished Politics of Race" (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Beyond academia, he has twenty years of experience as a politician in London's East End, serving as a local authority leader and founding member of various urban regeneration initiatives. His commitment to social justice extends to decades of voluntary sector work, from addressing racism and criminal justice to co-founding and chairing the Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, the UK's largest multicultural arts centre.

Neave O'Clery serves as Associate Professor at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London, where she leads innovative research on cities as complex systems. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Imperial College London, followed by prestigious positions as a Fulbright Scholar and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for International Development. Her research focuses on understanding cities through mathematical and spatial modeling, particularly examining economic development processes and knowledge accumulation patterns. Previously, she held the position of Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University's Mathematical Institute, where she continues as a Visiting Research Fellow. Beyond her research, she demonstrates leadership in academic publishing as founder and Editor-in-Chief of Angle, a journal she established in 2009 at Imperial College that bridges the gap between policy, politics, and science. Her work combines sophisticated mathematical modeling with practical urban development applications, making her a leading voice in quantitative urban studies.

Pengjun Zhao serves as Professor in Urban and Transport Planning at Peking University's Department of Urban and Regional Planning, where he also directs the Centre for Urban Planning and Transport Studies. As Editor-in-Chief of Cities (Elsevier), he plays a significant role in shaping academic discourse in urban studies. His research focuses on critical areas of urban transportation, including sustainable transportation systems, travel demand management, sustainable mobility solutions, and transport equality. His work at PEAK Urban includes leading research on the complex interactions between behavior, transport flows, and urban society, with the goal of developing policy scenarios for transitioning cities toward more sustainable forms of transport