José Siri Author

Ali Cheshmehzangi is the World’s top 2% field leader for two consecutive years, recognized by Stanford University. At Qingdao City University (QCU), he is the Head and Founding Director of the Center of Innovation for Education and Research (CIER), and a Professor in Architecture and Urban Planning. In his management role, he leads the University’s international communications and global partnership. Ali has five academic degrees and more than 17 years of academic and practice experience Previously, he worked in China, Japan, and the UK. He was a Full Professor in Architecture and Urban Design, Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Founding Director of the Urban Innovation Lab, Director of the Center for Sustainable Energy Technologies, and Interim Director of the Digital Design Lab. Ali has held several management and leadership roles for the past 10 years. He is active in research and is globally known for his extensive work on ‘urban sustainability’ and ‘city transitions’. So far, Ali has published over 400 journal papers, articles, conference papers, book chapters, and reports. To date, he has 24 other academic books. Several of his books have received national, provincial, and municipal awards. Ali is also the Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s Urban Sustainability (US) book series.


Nicholas You is a veteran urban specialist and thought leader. Prior to his retirement he was the senior policy and planning advisor to UN-Habitat and the manager of the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. He is the founder and honorary chairman of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering Committee, former chairman of the Assurance Group for Urban Infrastructure of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, former Chairman of the Urban Strategy and Innovation Council for ENGIE and former co-President of the Global Cities Business Alliance.He is currently the Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, co-Chair of the Open Green City Lab in Shenzhen and adjunct for the Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore. He regularly advises central and local governments, technology companies and civil society organisations on urban sustainability, urban governance and urban innovation including the nexus between water, waste, transport and energy. He also works as a strategic planning and governance advisor to many metropolitan authorities worldwide.  Since the outbreak of the pandemic, he has been part of a network of professionals facilitating the exchange of positive experiences between civil society and grassroots organisations. In 2020, he co-authored several key reports that were presented to G20.


 Over a career in research and policy, José Siri has developed and applied systems approaches to urban and planetary health, focusing on leveraging science for healthy development, devising simple systems tools to catalyze better decision-making, and improving understanding of complex challenges. His work has touched on urban studies, climate and health, sustainable development, systems thinking, transdisciplinarity, epidemiology, ecology, infectious disease, public health, and malaria control. His experience, which spans five continents, includes time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, and the Wellcome Trust, and extensive engagement with researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, along with policy briefs and commentaries in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Global Sustainable Development Report. He is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council for Cities, a co-founder of the Urban Health Research Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC-Urban Health), and a Commissioner on the Tsinghua-Lancet Commission for Healthy Cities in China. He currently consults for the World Bank and the World Health Organization, and holds advisory roles with the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, Future Earth, CDP and a variety of urban and planetary health research projects. 


Eugénie L. Birch FAICP, FAcSS, RTPI (Hon.), is the Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research, Department of City and Regional Planning, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania. She is the founding co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, dedicated to integrative research and instruction in sustainable urban development. She is co-editor, University of  Pennsylvania Press’s City in the 21st Century  series. Prof Birch currently serves on the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Executive Committee and the Board of the Regional Plan Association. She is a member of the Word Economic Forum’s Futures Council on Urbanization, president, General Assembly of Partners (GAP) for the implementation of the UN’s SDGs and the New Urban Agenda and co-chair, Jury for the Guangzhou Award for Urban Innovation, 2021. ASelected publications include  “Realigning the Governance Architecture After COVID-19:

City Diplomacy and Multilateral Institutions,” Journal of International Affairs (with William Burke White) forthcoming, Slums: How the Informal Real Estate Markets Work (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), “Implementing the New Urban Agenda in the United States, “Informationen zur Raumentwicklung (Information on Spatial Development)(2017)  and “Metrics and the Impact of the Urban SDG,” in Elqvist et al., The Urban Planet (2018). Her current research focuses on informality, multi-lateralism and cities, and sustainable urban development. She currently is the co-principal investigator on Penn’s Mellon Foundation sponsored Humanities, Urbanization and Design (H+U+D) initiative. Dr Birch holds a PhD and Masters degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University.  Kenneth T. Jackson served as chair of her dissertation committee.