Shaping Urban Futures: Global Cities and Development

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

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.

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

Juan Carlos Duque currently serves as Research Scientist at Carbon Solutions LLC while maintaining his role as founder and director of the Research in Spatial Economics (RiSE) group. After earning his Ph.D. in Business Studies from the University of Barcelona and MSc in Economics from Pompeu Fabra University, he built an impressive career combining academic research with practical applications. His journey includes serving as Full Professor at EAFIT University from 2007 to 2017, where he directed both the Ph.D. and Master's programs in Economics. As a world-leading expert in region design and spatiotemporal analysis, his research has garnered over 3,000 citations and produced more than 40 international publications in prestigious journals. His expertise has been sought by major international organizations including the World Bank, UN-Habitat, and the Inter-American Development Bank. He currently serves on the editorial boards of several prominent journals while maintaining affiliations with the Center for Geospatial Sciences at UC Riverside and the Geographic Systems Analysis Lab at UC Santa Barbara. His recent work focuses on urban sustainability, metropolitan coordination, and the development of innovative methods for analyzing spatial economic patterns, particularly in Latin American cities through the PEAK-Urban project supported by the UK's Global Challenge Research Fund.

Neave O'Clery serves as Professor of Cities and Networks at University College London's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), where she leads research on urban systems and economic development. Originally from Dublin, her academic journey began with a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Imperial College London, followed by positions as a Fulbright Scholar and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for International Development, and Senior Research Fellow at Oxford's Mathematical Institute. Her research combines complex systems analysis, network science, and economic geography to understand urban development and industrial evolution. In 2022, she received the Complex Systems Society Junior Award for her contributions to economic geography and science-policy bridging. As founder and Editor-in-Chief of Angle journal since 2009, she promotes dialogue at the intersection of policy, politics, and science. Her work extends beyond academia through collaborations with policy makers, including local governments and international organizations like the World Bank. She currently directs several major research initiatives, including projects on informal cities, urban skill networks, and economic complexity, while maintaining affiliations with both UCL and Oxford University.