Contributors
Our events are tailored to create new connections, bringing together an international network of experts from all disciplines. These shared moments cultivate a spirit of collaboration
Alejandro henao
Dr. Alejandro Henao is a postdoctoral transportation researcher with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Deputy Director for Mobility Choice. His research focuses on the synergies between transportation and energy, with an emphasis on data collection strategies and innovation to answer key research questions including impacts of ride-hailing and future mobility options. Realizing the difficulty in obtaining data directly from Uber and Lyft, he designed a natural experiment using an anthropological and survey-based approach by conducting research while driving for both companies. Alejandro is a recipient of the Dwight Eisenhower Fellowship and additional fellowships from the National Science Foundation. He is interested and motivated in research and work that leads to the creation of better places including transportation innovations opportunities, energy savings, mode choice, transit use, car-dependency reduction, safety, and equity.
ALEX CHATHAM
Alex Chatham is a New York based industrial designer and entrepreneur. After studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and Istituto Europeo di Design, he started his career designing cars for Italy’s legendary Bertone. He has developed consumer products that millions of people use every day for major brands like LG, SCJ, Panasonic, InBev and Lenovo. Alex now runs a startup called Spacial that is developing autonomous blimps for a variety of applications in and around the urban environment.
ALEX SUTTON
Alex is an award-winning British designer. A graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, his work has been published globally through the international media, with features in Dezeen, Architizer, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and GQ Magazine. His speculative Stockholm Airport City project won the Jury Prize in the Architizer A+ Awards 2016, Unbuilt Transportation Category in New York, after capturing significant worldwide attention with its exploration on how an airport and a city center may one day co-exist. Alex is currently a designer and project leader at Sevil Peach Architecture + Design in London.
ALEXANDER KIRBY
Alexander Kirby is Managing Director of Final Approach Limited, a consultancy company specializing in creating unique development strategies for airport clients. These range from sustainable growth of the air service network to maximizing the value of the real-estate assets in and around the airport. Prior, from 2014 to 2017, Alexander was Senior Advisor to the Board at London Gatwick Airport, the world’s busiest low cost carrier airport welcoming 45.7 million passenger to its single runway. His primary focus was working with the business and political communities to gain their support the continued growth of the airport. Since August 2016, Alexander has served on the Infrastructure Committee of the Urban Land Institute that provide thought leadership on infrastructure solutions for projects across the UK.
AMAIA DE DURAÑONA
Amaia de Durañona is an interior architect and industrial designer at FR-EE - Fernando Romero Enterprise. Before moving to Mexico City, she collaborated on private luxury projects for the Middle East and Africa in Paris. Amaia currently serves as Associate Interior Architect and head of the specifications department for the new international airport for Mexico City project at FR-EE.
amna ansari
Amna Ansari is an Urban Designer at SWA and co-founder of think tank UltraBarrio. She seeks large-scale urban design projects that work systematically toward an ideal future between infrastructure, urbanism, landscape, and technologies. Her recent talks titled ‘Covert Landscapes’ and ‘Flight, Flows and New Fields’ examine behaviors towards technology processing new demands on public space. Amna’s work has been published in ULI Urban Land Magazine ‘Designing for the Driverless Age’ (2018) and ‘Imagining the Driverless City’ (2015), as well as featured in “Fast Company - Co.Exist Futurist Forum”, creating speaking engagements with Boston Society of Architects as a panelist for ‘Smart Cities’. As an alumnus of MIT, Amna takes a research approach to her understanding of cities as a means of exchange between discrete systems and technologies.
AMY FORD
As the Chief of Advanced Mobility at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Amy Ford is responsible for accelerating innovation and technologies that maximize the experience of people, goods and information moving on Colorado’s transportation system. She directs program strategy of various divisions including Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSM&O), which manages Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Safety & Traffic Engineering and other Traffic Operations programs, the RoadX Program, which partners with the private sector to deploy transformational transportation solutions such as connected, autonomous or hyperloop-technologies, CDOT’s Workforce of the Future initiatives and the Office of Communications, which is responsible for all strategic external and internal communications. Amy also serves as the Chair for the state of Colorado’s Autonomous Mobility Task Force, which is responsible establishing consistent policy and operational deployment guidance in support of an autonomous mobility future.
ANDRES F. RAMIREZ
Andres F. Ramirez is a sociologist and urban planner, investigating the semantics of space and its socio-cultural implications. As a project manager, program curator, and independent consultant in architecture and urban planning he works in projects with an emphasis on social processes and public space. He is co-founder and Managing Partner of PLANE—SITE, an agency devoted to the production and dissemination of original content for architecture and the built environment.
ANTHONY LOUI
Anthony Loui has more than 20 years’ experience in the field of city planning, architecture, urban design, transportation planning, policy and implementation. He has worked for the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) at the Federal Transit Administration in Washington, DC. With extensive experience in evaluating and recommending new public transportation investments, he also participates in other policy activities undertaken, including public-private partnership arrangements, transit-oriented development initiatives and intermodal policy development. He currently works in California at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro).
ARTURO MACHUCA
Arturo Machuca is the General Manager of the Houston Airport System’s Ellington Airport. He is also the lead on the Houston Spaceport project. With over 30 years of sales and marketing experience in the aviation industry, Arturo joined the Houston Airport System in 2009. His prior responsibilities included economic development, industry affairs and business relations for all three airports. Over the last three years, Arturo has been instrumental in the licensing and development of the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport. Through his efforts, Arturo has executed the Space Act Agreement between the Houston Spaceport and NASA – Johnson Space Center, negotiated the acquisition of the Houston Spaceport’s first dedicated infrastructure—the Houston Aerospace Support Center, and led the SpaceCom Expo, the first Commercial Space Conference in Houston. Arturo’s management of the Houston Spaceport project allowed it to be selected as the “2016 Economic Business Deal of the Year” as well as “2016 Overall Business Deal of the Year,” by the Houston Business Journal.
ASHOK RAIJI
Ashok Raiji is a Mechanical Engineer and Principal in Arup’s New York office. He has led the design of several airport terminals all over the world, including the new Mexico City Airport, Abu Dhabi Mid-field concourse, Bangalore Terminal 2, JFK Terminal 4 expansion for Delta Airlines and Terminal 2 at Raleigh-Durham. He has worked on the design and provided expert consulting services for aviation projects in 16 countries and airport terminals with a total area of more than 3 million square meters.
ben savonen
Ben Savonen is an engineer and maker who is a part of Field Ready’s Rapid Emergency Deployment (RED) team. He is also a research engineer at Pennsylvania State University’s Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) program, and he has spent the last several years looking into how 3D printing can benefit rural healthcare systems in East Africa. From this work he cofounded Kijenzi, a social impact venture that uses 3D printing to create both employment opportunities and hard-to-find equipment for hospitals in Western Kenya.
ben taub
Ben Taub joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2017. He has written for the magazine about jihadi recruitment in Europe, war crimes in Syria, battlefield medicine, and human trafficking along the trans-Saharan migration routes from Nigeria to Italy. In 2014, he received a B.A. in philosophy from Princeton; the next year, he completed an M.A. in politics at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2017, Ben’s work on Syria, which was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, was short-listed for a National Magazine Award and won the Livingston Award for International Reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy Award for International Print reporting, and the Overseas Press Club Award for Investigative Reporting. Ben also received the ASME Next Award for Journalists Under 30, and was named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media.
Benedikt Boucsein
Benedikt Boucsein (PhD, ETH Zurich) is an architect and urban designer with a research focus on infrastructure, urban design and everyday architecture. From 2008-2017 he taught and researched at the ETH Zurich with Guest Professor Felix Claus and Prof. Kees Christiaanse. His book The Noise Landscape, co-authored with Kees Christiaanse, Eirini Kasioumi and Christian Salewski, appears in September 2017. Parallel to his academic work, Benedikt co-founded the research and publication platform Camenzind in 2005 and the architectural partnership BHSF in 2007.
Benjamin Ball
Benjamin Ball is leading the integrated design and fabrication practice Ball- Nogues Studio, in collaboration with Gaston Nogues. Operating in a territory between architecture, art and industrial design, their work is informed by the exploration of craft. Essential to each project is the “design” of the production process itself, with the aim of creating environments that enhance sensation, generate spectacle and invite physical engagement. The Studio (established 2004) has exhibited at major institutions, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Venice Biennale.
BENJAMIN BRATTON
Benjamin H. Bratton is sociological, media, and design theorist. He is Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is Program Director of the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow. He is also a Professor of Digital Design at The European Graduate School and Visiting Faculty at SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture). Benjamin's work sits at the intersections of contemporary social and political theory, computational media & infrastructure, and architectural & urban design problems and methodologies.
BILL KREYSLER
William Kreysler is founder and CEO of Kreysler & Associates (K&A), a custom molder of ber reinforced polymer products located in Napa County CA. K&A has won awards for excellence in the manufacture of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) architectural products, industrial products, and large-scale sculptures. The firm has customers throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Before founding K&A in 1982, Bill was Executive VP and Production Manager for the Performance Sailcraft Corporation (PSC), Northern California’s largest manufacturer of sailboats at the time. He is a founding member and President of the Digital Fabrication Network.
BLAKE SCHOLL
Blake Scholl is founder/CEO at Boom Supersonic, the Denver startup building supersonic passenger aircraft. Previously, he held leadership roles at Amazon.com and was co-founder and CEO at Kima Labs (acquired by Groupon). Blake is an avid pilot and holds a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Bostjan Vuga
Bostjan Vuga is a Slovenian architect and educator. Together with Jurij Sadar, he founded SADAR+VUGA in Ljubljana in 1996. In two decades the office has become one of the leading European architectural practices based on an open, integral and innovative concept. Their most acclaimed works include the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the Central Part of the National Gallery of Slovenia, Sports Park Stožice, and Air Traffic Control Centre Ljubljana. The office has received many national and global architectural awards (Bauwelt Prize, Iconic Award, ArchMarathon Award, Piranesi Award, Plecnik Prize) and eight Mies van der Rohe nominations. Bostjan co-curated the Montenegro Pavilion at the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014. He was a guest professor at the Münster School of Architecture, the IAAC Barcelona, TU Berlin and The Berlage Institute. Since 2014 he has led the board of the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Brent Mather
Brent Mather is a Design Principal at Gensler, where his creativity is contagious to both the designers he mentors as well as his clients. He has a keen sense of partnership with his clients and works with them to craft thoughtful designs that are inspired by their vision and the site and its surroundings. Brent is an award-winning designer whose leadership in crafting innovative solutions that are functional, yet cutting edge, is what differentiates his talent.
Bruce Upbin
Bruce Upbin is VP of Strategic Communications for Hyperloop One, where his main role is to connect audiences globally to the promise and reality of the first new mode of transportation in 100 years. Since joining the company in May 2016, Upbin has helped establish the company’s brand and value proposition as a technology that can transform the way we live and work. Prior to joining Hyperloop One, he worked as a business journalist for 25 years, and ran Forbes Media’s worldwide technology coverage from 2008 to 2016, overseeing a network of more than 120 contributors.
CAMPBELL HYERS
As an Executive Principal at Intersection, Campbell Hyers has defined and shaped the firm’s core offerings at the convergence of the digital and physical worlds. As a founding partner of Intersection’s technology practice, his leadership launched a leading user experience firm that blends business strategy, UX design and digital tools. With a focus of injecting digital strategy into large shared spaces, his portfolio includes the creation of the Delta/OTG first-of-its-kind tablet concierge, establishing a digital master planning process for connected communities and airports, and helping the world’s largest retailer implement rapid modernization at scale to reenvision their scope of customer service. Hyers speaks frequently on the opportunity for digital to improve value and experience at scale in brick and mortar environments. He is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, curators of the United States Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.
CASEY REHM
Casey Rehm is a designer and algorithmic consultant whose firm Kinch is based in Los Angeles. In addition to his practice he is a full time faculty member at SCI-Arc. He received a MSAAD from Columbia University in 2009 and his BArch from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005. He has over 12 years of architectural experience, working for firms in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and London. In addition to his professional experience, Casey has been a full time faculty member at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, assisted studios at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pratt Institute. Rehm currently teaches graduate design studios and seminars in programming, interactive media and robotics in design.
catalina ochoa
Maria Catalina Ochoa is an Urban Transport Specialist at the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean region. Catalina worked at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in their transport program (EMBARQ) developing projects and analytical work to reduce pollution, improvement of public health, enhance mobility and affordability of urban transport, and creating safe, accessible and attractive urban public spaces. Ochoa has also worked as an academic researcher in urban planning and Bus Rapid Transit projects, and as an engineering consultant in Colombia and the United States.
CHRISTIAN HENRIKSEN
Christian Henriksen is a Partner in Nordic — Office of Architecture. He has played a central role in airport projects conducted by Nordic Office of Architecture. He has worked on the Oslo International Airport Gardermoen T1 and T2 projects through all of its phases. He was Design Manager for the ongoing extension of the airport. He is currently heading the expansion of Nordic in the UK and India. He holds a Sivilarkitekt (Master) degree from Norges Tekniske Høyskole.
CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE
Christopher Hawthorne has been the architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times since 2004. He is also professor of practice at Occidental College, where since 2015 he has directed the Third Los Angeles Project, a series of public conversations about architecture, urban planning, mobility, and demographic change in Southern California. Before joining the Los Angeles Times he was architecture critic for Slate, contributing editor at Metropolis magazine and a regular contributor to the New York Times. He is the author, with Alanna Stang, of The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture, published by Princeton Architectural Press, and has contributed essays to numerous books on art, architecture, and design, including Maynard L. Parker: Modern Photography and the American Dream (Yale University Press).
CLARE LYSTER
Clare Lyster is an architect, educator and writer. She is an Associate Professor at the Univeristy of Illinois School of Architecture (Chicago). Her work focuses on the design of the city from the perspective of contemporary theories in landscape and infrastructure. She is author of Learning from Logistics: How Networks Change Cities and co-editor of Third Coast Atlas, A Prelude to a Plan with Ibañez, Waldheim and White. Research and design, produced by her practice, CLUAA, has been exhibited locally and internationally including the Art Institute of Chicago, University College Dublin, The Lisbon Architecture Triennale and the forthcoming Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. Lyster received a BArch from UCD Dublin and her MArch from Yale University.
CRAIG HODGETTS
Craig Hodgetts, Principal and Co-Founder of Hodgetts + Fung Design and Architecture, is an internationally recognized architect known for his imaginative synthesis of architecture, arts and technology. With a broad ranging background in automotive design, theater, and architecture grounded by Mid-Western traditions, Hodgetts brings dramatic concepts to life by means of an uncompromising application of constructive methodology. He has been called upon to produce full-scale architectural projects, master plans, urban designs, exhibition installations, entertainment venues, and industrial products. Creative Director of Hodgetts + Fung, Craig is known for employing an imaginative weave of high technology and storytelling, contemporary ideology, information culture and evolving lifestyles.
CYNTHIA NIKITIN
Cynthia Nikitin has led numerous large-scale multi-sectoral place-based community-led projects during her twenty-five years with Project for Public Spaces. She is directing the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts which focuses on providing technical design assistance to rural communities and small towns across the United States. Cynthia also manages the Heart of the Community program, a partnership with Southwest Airlines to create transformative public spaces. Most recently, she has been a lead trainer and technical assistance advisor to ThinkCity, an urban regeneration organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
chris culbert
Chris Culbert has spent more than 30 years developing technologies and systems for human spaceflight at the NASA Johnson Space Center. He is currently the Chief Technologist for Johnson Space Center, responsible for coordinating center strategies for technology development and supporting agency wide activities for the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist. During his career he has managed the development of advanced technologies in robotics, automation, avionics, and software for Space Shuttle, Space Station, and advanced human missions. As a division chief, Culbert has provided systems support for avionics, software, and other key systems for the International Space Station, Orion, and Commercial Crew. He has also led the agency’s Human Spaceflight Architecture team, developing concepts for human missions to deep space.
DAN CONNORS
Dan Connors is co-founder and CTO at Boulder AI and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado. His research explores AI and deep learning computer vision models for training computers to detect objects and classify activities. His research investigates real-time vision solutions that track human gestures as well as enable smart city environments with threat detection, vehicle tracking, and animal identification. Boulder AI provides edge vision systems to solve emerging applications of AI in human behavior analysis, smart infrastructure, and automated agriculture & industrial processing. Boulder AI created an intelligent GPU-enabled deep-learning neural network camera (DNNcam) that is waterproof, dust-proof and runs AI algorithms at the image source. This edge camera executes AI/machine learning and computer vision algorithms without additional computer resources and directly distills visual information into actionable event data. The end-to-end Boulder AI platform enables developers to effortlessly deploy new vision models to collect and visualize edge data events into data environments.
DAN VERBSKY
Dan Verbsky is a Senior Account Manager at LG Electronics for the transportation industry. Prior to that, he worked as the Director of Hardware Solutions at CMS provider Four Winds Interactive for 7 years. Verbsky has over 23 years in the display industry with a background in design, installation, support, and solutions consulting.
daniela marquez
Daniela Marquez was born in San Cristóbal, Venezuela and immigrated to live in the United States when she was 10 years old. She received a Bachelor Fine of Arts in Interior Design summa cum laude from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in the Spring of 2017 and is now pursuing a Master in Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the past, she has worked at multi-disciplinary firms such as THW Design and McALPINE within the Atlanta area and has also held instructional positions both at SCAD and at Georgia Tech, assisting students in an attainment of general architectural and design concepts and facilitating the learning of various skills and tools. Marquez recently received the IIDA GA Student Award for Social Relevance in Design for her undergraduate capstone project: a Children’s Autism Center in Medellín, Colombia. She hopes to continue to explore the global impact of design throughout her work as a student and a professional.
david alexander
David Alexander is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, where his primary areas of research are solar physics exoplanetary physics and earth remote sensing. As Director, Professor Alexander is responsible for managing all aspects of the growth and development of the institute. This includes providing vision, direction, and leadership, managing the various institute programs, identifying and fostering research opportunities for our faculty, and interacting with government and the space industry. Professor Alexander was recently named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen in the Birthday Honours List of June 2018 for services to US/UK connections in the space industry and higher education.
DAVID BRODY
David Brody has had a life-long passion for aircraft, science and technology. He’s the founder and Chairman of XTI Aircraft Company, and was also the founder (and former Chairman and CEO) of AVX Aircraft Company, an advanced technology helicopter company located in Fort Worth, Texas. Brody has ten patents issued in his name for inventions in aircraft technology and other fields, and has written three books, including a national Book-of-the-Month Club best seller on science and technology, The Science Class You Wish You Had, The Seven Greatest Scientific Discoveries in History and the People Who Made Them (Putnam Berkeley, New York 1997, 2ndedition, 2013). Brody has practiced law in Denver for over 40 years, as in-house counsel with a major corporation and two international law firms. He received a B.S. from the University of Colorado in 1971, and J.D. from American University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1973.
DAVID COOK
David Cook, AIA, is an Associate at Grimshaw, where he has worked for the past eightyears. In 1999, while at HOK, he worked on a feasibility study for Delta Air Lines at JFK Airport. Since then, Cook has continued to work on aviation, transportation and infrastructure projects, as well as other project types, including higher education and commercial. His most recent completed projects for Grimshaw are the Broadhead Center for Student Life at Duke University and the Croton Water Filtration Plan in Bronx, NY. He also recently led the design of a bus terminal prototype that will be deployed at multiple sites in Doha, Qatar. Cook received his Master of Architecture from Columbia University, and has spoken at numerous schools and conferences including most recently Pratt, Parsons School of Design, SCUP, and Wood at Work 2017.
DAVID GILMORE
Dave Gilmore is the President and Chief Operating Officer of DesignIntelligence and the Design Futures Council, where he is responsible for strategic growth and management. He is a contributing member of the American Economic Association, a scholar member of the American Institute of Economic Research, and active member of the International Economic Development Council.
david mihigo
David Mihigo is a second semester student at Ardhi University Dar es Salaam-Tanzania studying a Master of Science in Urban Planning and Management, School of Spatial Planning and Social Sciences. He received his Bachelor degree with Upper Second Class Honors in Land Surveying at Ruhengeri Institute of High Education (INES-RUHENGERI) and Advanced Diploma in Civil Engineering option of Construction Technology at Integrated Polytechnic Regional Center Kigali (IPRC-Kigali). Mihigo is doing research on Location and Accessibility of Solid Waste Transfer Stations in Rapidly Transforming Neighborhood Case study of Sinza A, Dar es salaam-Tanzania.
DEREK MOORE
Derek A. R. Moore, AIA, PhD, has spent most of his architectural career planning and designing large-scale transportation complexes in both urban and airport settings. He is a Director of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (SOM), where he leads the firm’s transportation practice. Derek has played a significant role in projects at all three NY/NJ airports, as well as other US projects. Internationally, Derek has led planning and design projects for airports in Europe, the Middle East, India, Hong Kong, China and New Zealand. The new integrated Terminal at Mumbai International Airport and the Denver Union Station multi-model ground transportation and city development projects are among his most recent completed projects. Derek is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, where he spent three years researching and writing his PhD dissertation for the Institute of Fine Arts. His teaching at Columbia and NYU, as well as his scholarly publications, have ranged from ancient to modern urban history, architectural history and theory, and the future of transportation. Special projects have included the restoration of a significant church influenced by the Ecclesiological movement in the US and a plan for enhanced visitation of historic sites in Agra, India.
DERRICK CHOI
Derrick Choi AIA, Aviation and Transportation Leader at Gensler, is an award-winning aviation architect and transportation planning professional with nearly two decades of experience working on challenging international aviation, transportation, infrastructure, and urban design projects from Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He has been privileged to have participated in aviation design projects for the world’s leading airport clientele from Amsterdam-Schiphol to Atlanta to Abu Dhabi. A graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Choi has worked at a number of leading aviation design practices with a wide-ranging portfolio of aviation projects from airport cities to private general aviation hangars.
DONALD ALBRECHT
Donald Albrecht is the Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of the City of New York. He has curated Now Boarding: Fentress + The Architecture of Flight for the Denver Art Museum and Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design for the National Building Museum, to profiles of individual design firms and artists—The Work of Charles and Ray Eames for the Library of Congress and Vitra Design Museum and Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future for the Finnish Cultural Institute.
DOUGLAS BAKER
Dr. Douglas Baker is Professor and Head of Property and Planning in the School of Civil Engineering and the Built Environment at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Dr. Baker’s areas of expertise include land use planning, airport management, and regional air transport. He has worked across the airport and air transport sectors in Australia, Canada and Europe. Prior coming to Australia, he worked in the public and private sectors, and was acting Head of School of Environmental Planning at the University of Northern British Columbia. Professor Baker was the leading investigator of an international research team that evaluated the Airport Metropolis concept from 2007-2011. He currently is working with the University of Cologne and T.U. Berlin on an international collaboration evaluating the planning of airports within the urban context. In addition, his research investigates the challenges of regional air transport in rural and remote Australia.
edward schwarz
Edward Schwarz is General Manager of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction in Switzerland since it was created in 2003. He has produced almost 50 regional and global prize hand-over ceremonies and edited some 40 publications related to sustainable construction. He is a Swiss national and was a journalist and editor of a daily newspaper before being appointed editor-in-chief of a radio station. From 1992, he was in charge of communications of a building materials holding company and became Head of Corporate Communications for the united operations of Holcim in Switzerland. From 1998, Schwarz was the global Head of Internal and Online Communications of Holcim Ltd.
FERD BELZ
Ferd Belz is President in charge of all real estate for L.C. Fulenwider, Inc., the corporate entity for the Fulenwider family holdings. These holdings include 7,500 acres of land near Denver International Airport (DEN) as well as multiple other real estate assets in the Denver region. Belz is currently leading the development effort for Pena Station NEXT, a 400-acre transit-oriented development (TOD) surrounding the first rail stop on the commuter line from DEN to downtown Denver. This TOD is a public-private partnership between L.C. Fulenwider, Inc. and DEN and is the divisional headquarters for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions. He is currently a partner in the redevelopment of the historic Denver Union Station into a mixed-use, retail, hotel and transit center project. Belz is past Chair of the Downtown Denver Partnership, past Chair of the Board of the Auraria Foundation, current treasurer and on the Board of the Civic Center Conservancy and on the Board of the Metro State University Foundation.
FRANK BARICH
Frank Barich is founder and Principal Consultant of Barich, Inc.; a business consulting firm serving the aviation industry. He has over 30 years’ experience in his profession and currently serves in project leadership and consulting roles. During this time, he has had the privilege of helping to advance North American airport initiatives in key strategic areas such as passenger processing, airport operational technologies, and common use.
FRED MERRILL
Fred Merrill is a senior planner at Sasaki with 38 years of national experience planning and designing urban districts, corridors, neighborhoods, and central businesses districts; master planning communities and mixed-use developments; and repurposing brownfields, military bases, and former industrial sites. He leads complex master planning processes that promote collaboration between the client, interdisciplinary professionals and diverse interest groups to achieve beneficial outcomes for multiple stakeholders. Merrill is a frequent presenter at national planning and development conferences including the Urban Land Institute and American Planning Association and co-teaches an urban planning studio at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, one of the planning profession's highest honors.
GEOFF GOLDBERG
Geoff Goldberg practices architecture and urban design in the Chicago area, focusing on complex urban design projects. Projects include regional planning for a third airport, an industrial development plan for the west side of Chicago, a City College campus, and design management of the CTA Brown Line reconstruction. His office G. Goldberg + Associates, founded in 1992, aims for tighter integration of public policy and project development. With extensive experience in the public sector, Goldberg seeks to reconcile long-term public goals and short-term needs by combining highly disciplined project management and design solutions. Work under his direction has received numerous awards, from small details to larger regional planning efforts. A graduate of the University of Chicago and Harvard University, he currently teaches design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has published both architectural and engineering histories.
GEORGE KAFKA
George Kafka is a writer and researcher based in London. Formerly an editor at uncube magazine, he has written on architecture and cities for Metropolis, The Architectural Review and Cartha, among others. He is a founding member of editorial collective &beyond and is currently working towards a PhD in Urban Studies at University College London.
HARVEY MOLOTCH
Harvey Molotch is a Professor of Sociology at New York University. His writings on cities pay special attention to city growth, urban security, everyday artifacts, and product design. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation and Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Among his eight books and over 100 scholarly articles and book chapters is Against Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways and Other Sites of Ambiguous Danger (Princeton University Press, 2012). Prior to NYU, Molotch was Centennial Professor, London School of Economics and Professor of Sociology at University of California, Santa Barbara.
HENNIE REYNDERS
Hennie Reynders is the Chair of Architecture and full-time, tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objectsat the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His research interests and academic advising benefit from the interdisciplinary opportunities of the art, design and science nexus at SAIC and focus on uneven development in the urban field, ecological urbanism, revolutionary forms of practice, social infrastructure, the social shaping of technology and the relationship that exists between structure and agency. By implication his research propositions an expanded mandate for architecture through his writing, in biopic interventions and installations, and most recently through contributions to the Good City Group in Chicago.
HERNAN DIAZ ALONSO
Hernan Diaz Alonso assumed the role of SCI-Arc director beginning in the 2015 academic year. He is widely credited with spearheading SCI-Arc’s transition to digital technologies, and he played a key role in shaping the school’s graduate curriculum over the last decade. In parallel to his role at SCI-Arc, Diaz Alonso is principal of the Los Angeles–based architecture office Xefirotarch. His multidisciplinary practice is praised for its work at the intersection of design, animation, interactive environments, and radical architectural explorations. Over the course of his career as an architect and educator, Diaz Alonso has earned accolades for his leadership and innovation, as well as his ability to build partnerships among varied constituencies.
IGNACIO CORREA-ORTIZ
Ignacio Correa-Ortiz made the decision to participate actively in the healthy evolution of cities thirty years ago; he believes that the permanence of our species in this planet depends largely on how just we are towards each other and towards our environment. Correa-Ortiz is a licensed architect and a certified planner and urban designer and Denver's Regional Transportation District Senior Architect and Urban Designer. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee and of the Universidad Santo Tomas in Colombia. Ignacio serves as a board member in the Denver Planning Board, the Denver Architecture Foundation, and is the Chair of the Regional + Urban Design Knowledge Community with AIA Colorado in Denver.
JACKIE COBURN
Jackie Coburn is an associate principal leading Arup’s Aviation Planning team in Toronto, Canada; a team of more than 20 strong it is a center of excellence in the firm. She has a background in architecture and has specialized in aviation since joining Arup nine years ago. With varied experience in airport master planning, terminal design and project management, Coburn brings a global perspective having worked on aviation projects in Canada, USA, South America, Europe and the Middle East. Most recently she has had a leading role in the development of a several large airport master plans ranging in size from 40 to 125 million annual passengers.
jason klimoski
Jason Klimoski is the principal and co-founder of the award-winning architecture and design firm STUDIOKCA. He received his Master in Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from University of Minnesota where he received the Katherine E. Sullivan Award and the Design Excellence Award from the Danish Institute For Study Abroad. Prior to founding STUDIOKCA, he worked for lighting designer Ingo Maurer in New York and Munich and at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill as a senior designer on projects including the Four Seasons Hotel in City Santa Fe, Mexico, the W Hotel in Denver, the Chase Manhattan Global Headquarters, Kuwait University, and the Manhattan West Project for Brookfield Properties.
JEANA SCHNECK
Jeana Schneck is a Senior Key Account Manager at LG Electronicsworking for the past five years in the transportation and ProAV space. Her primary focus is with system integrators and design consultants that work closely with airports. Schneck was on the team that won the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) airport project, where LG was chosen as the display provider for 1,127 video wall displays being used on the ticketing counter backwalls and for overhead wayfinding signage. Prior to coming to LG, she worked at a custom display manufacturer for eight years as a senior project manager responsible for product development from concept through production.
JEFFREY DUGAN
Jeffrey Dugan, AIA, is a partner at Dattner Architects. With over 35 years of experience focused on the design of transit facilities for air and rail, he is a leader within the firm’s Transportation and Infrastructure studio. In response to Governor Cuomo’s design competition involving the re-envisioning of LaGaurdia Airport, Dugan co-led the firm’s visionary urban master plan – Port LaGuardia – developing a series of bold ideas that focused on an incremental series of airside, landside, and waterside improvements. Through this cohesive master plan and the design of a unified terminal with Ferry, Subway, and AirTrain connectivity, a contemporary gateway was established, and many of the solutions incorporated into the Governor’s Advisory Committee’s Master Plan. As a leader in the industry, he serves as the co-chair of AIANY’s Transportation + Infrastructure (T+I) Committee where he contributes to the Chapter’s advocacy effort for T+I planning, design, and resiliency in public policy.
jeffrey s nesbit
Jeffrey S Nesbit is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, research fellow in the Office for Urbanization and is director of the design group Haecceitas Studio. Nesbit’s research evaluates the impacts of urbanization and the role of military infrastructure. Currently, his work focuses on the spaceport complex from the 20th century through historical technology, planetary urbanization, and the remote landscape. Nesbit has written a number of journal articles and books chapters on infrastructure and urbanization. He is co-editor of Chasing the City: Models for Extra-Urban Investigations (Routledge, 2018) and recently named co-editor of New Geographies 11: Extra Terrestrial (Actar, 2019). Nesbit has taught architecture and urban design as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and Texas Tech University.
JIM JARVIS
Jim Jarvis is a Senior Vice President with Ricondo & Associates, Inc. (Ricondo), where he has been for nearly 20 years and is responsible for the firm’s technical and client services. He oversees the firm’s client relationships and business activities in the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Jarvis ensures that Ricondo stays ahead of the issues facing airport managers and that their services are state-of-the-art and responsive to the ever-changing needs of the aviation industry. A City and Regional Planner by training, Jarvis has more than 30 years of professional experience. He understands the regulatory, business and regional planning frameworks under which airport managers operate. Prior to joining Ricondo, he served as the Manager of Transportation Planning for the Massachusetts Port Authority at Boston-Logan International Airport, and as a land use and transportation planner in New York and Boston.
JOE CRUZ
Joe Cruz, AIA, is a project manager for luis vidal + architects and is currently working on the Great Hall Project at Denver International Airport. Cruz started his career working in military aviation infrastructure and emergency response as an US Air Force Civil Engineer officer in New Mexico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Germany. Since then, Cruz has designed laboratories, government facilities, dam infrastructure, and other technical projects both stateside and abroad. Cruz earned his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame and serves as a committee member of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards where he has authored questions for the Architect Registration Exam since 2012.
joel jassu
Joel Jassu was born and raised in the slums of Banda in Kampala, Uganda. He miraculously got a scholarship to join the University of Memphis to study Architecture for his undergraduate and is now pursuing a masters degree at Georgia Institute of Technology. Jassu’s experiences living in Uganda have shaped his understanding and empathy of design because of the many cultural experiences he brings to the table. He has spent the last six years doing start-ups and leading teams from the United States, Italy, Sudan, Togo, United Kingdom and Uganda doing cross-cultural projects in Uganda. Jassu hopes to continue working on global initiatives like this particularly in Africa in the future. He loves getting to know people, working in teams, sketching and bouncing design ideas quickly over trace paper and switching back and forth with digital media. His professional experiences include working on different project scales with Looney Ricks Kiss in Memphis, TN and the Perkins+Will Atlanta office.
JOHN C. GREENWOOD
John C. Greenwood is an executive with the startup initiative CityNOW called Digital City Media for Panasonic. CityNOW is Panasonic North America’s smart city business that provides transformational solutions to cities, states, real estate developers and utilities. CityNOW’s headquarters are at Pena Station NEXT, a 382-acre Transit Oriented Development served by Denver’s new RTD A Line train service, which connects Union Station downtown to Denver International Airport. Greenwood is a visionary entrepreneur and Business Builder. He founded the partnership agency, Proxy Partners, in 1998 at 29 years of age and sold it 10 years later to a company he co-founded, Radius Media Holdings, an entity of The Anschutz Corporation (TAC), where he acted as President & CEO. In 2013, Radius companies Sign Language XL (SLXL) and foxbox originals™ (which John holds the patent) were integrated into another TAC company, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) based in Los Angeles. John continued in his role as President & CEO of the remaining companies until Fall, 2016 after growing revenue by 246% when he transitioned to help AEG and The Anschutz Corporation with global initiatives. John serves on the board of the Young President's Organization (YPO), has supported Colorado Succeeds and Colorado Concern.
JOHN ZUKOWSKY
John Zukowsky is an architectural and design historian with more than four decades of museum experience. While curator of architecture for The Art Institute of Chicago (1978 – 2004), he organized a number of award-winning exhibitions, accompanied by major publications. These include three devoted to aviation architecture and design: Building for Air Travel; Building for Space Travel; and Aerospace Design, this last done in conjunction with NASA. He has also recently authored several architecture volumes including Benjamin H. Marshall: Chicago Architect, Why on Earth Would Anyone Build That? Modern Architecture Explained; and Building Chicago: The Architectural Masterworks. His latest book, in conjunction with architectural illustrator Robbie Polley, is titled Architecture Inside-Out, being scheduled for publication in 2018.
jonathan dessi-olive
Jonathan Dessi-Olive is the current Ventulett NEXT visiting Fellow at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture. His work takes a critical approach to technology while integrating history and theory of architecture, contemporary compression-only construction, and computational design. As a designer, builder and scholar, his motivation is to help designers and builders to learn to design more intuitively, systematically, and visually. He firmly believes making is inseparable from design, and provides a context for learning that brings to light the relationship between current design tools and methods, and our necessity to make breakthroughs in techniques of assembly and construction. His recent contributions have been to develop new methodologies for designing and building high-performance, sustainable concrete structures in the United States, Europe and Africa.
jonathan irawan
Jonathan Irawan is a Computational Designer at HASSELL Studio. His body of work specializes around the implementation of experimental and innovative design and construction methodologies, focused around highly responsive adaptive systems, behavioral analysis and simulation. His mission lies in bridging the gap in design technology research between academia and industry implementation, constantly experimenting and prototyping to augment the design process. Having previously worked and gained experience in delivering multidisciplinary projects within Asia, Australia and the UK, he incorporates a wider perspective in the formulation of design solutions. Irawan is engaged in the development of Phase 3 in NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Centennial Challenge to design the first autonomously 3D Printed Habitat, capable of sustaining 4 Astronauts in Mars for one year.
JONATHAN D. SOLOMON
Jonathan D. Solomon is an Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His drawings, analytical and counterfactual urban narratives, appear in Cities Without Ground (ORO, 2012), and 13 Projects for the Sheridan Expressway (PAPress, 2004). Solomon edits Forty-Five, a journal of outside research, and was curator of the US Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. His interests include extra-disciplinary, post-growth, and non-anthroponormative design futures. Solomon received a BA from Columbia University and an MArch from Princeton University and is a licensed architect in the State of Illinois.
JUERGEN MAYER H.
Juergen Mayer H. is founder and principal of J. MAYER H. und Partner, Architekten mbB, an international, award winning architecture office with projects at the intersection of architecture, communication, and new technology. From urban planning schemes and buildings to installation work and objects with new materials, Juergen Mayer H. is concerned with the relationship between the human body, technology, and nature; which forms the background for a new production of space. National and international awards include the Mies van der Rohe Award, emerging architect, special mention 2003; Holcim Award, winner Europe bronze 2005; and Audi Urban Future Award, 2010.
KATHY VELIKOV
Kathy Velikov is an Architect and Associate Professor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She is founding partner of the research-based practice RVTR, which serves as a platform for exploration and experimentation in the agency of architecture and urban design, within the context of dynamic ecological systems, infrastructures, materially and technologically mediated environments, and emerging social organizations. Velikov is a recipient of the Architectural League’s Young Architects Award and the Canadian Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture. Her practice has won numerous awards and their work has been exhibited widely; most recently “Infundibuliforms” received a 2016 R+D Awards honorable mention from Architect Magazine and they collaborated on EXTRACTION, the Canadian Pavilion for the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. She is currently working on an exhibition, symposium, and publication titled Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape and the Postnatural.
ken gidlow
Ken Gidlow is an Aerospace Engineer/Technical Advisor for the FAA Houston Office of Commercial Space Transportation at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). He coordinates FAA Licensing with the NASA Commercial Resupply Services contracts for SpaceX, Northrup Grumman and Sierra Nevada Corp delivering cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Gidlow also works with southwest-area airports who became 1 of the 11 FAA Commercially-licensed Spaceports. Prior to opening the FAA Houston Office, he was the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Deputy Manager for the Development Division in the D.C. Headquarters Office.
leslie haas
Leslie Haas directs the business development and marketing efforts for Paragon Space Development Corporation. Prior to joining Paragon, she had more than 25 years of global business experience with Fortune 100 and startup companies in diverse industries including aerospace, energy, and entertainment. Her aerospace experience includes engineering and project management roles on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station as well as program management roles at Moog (formerly Schaeffer Magnetics). Her corporate background includes stints as Vice President and General Manager of the Sony DVD Center which launched the DVD format worldwide and Vice President Business Development for the Sony Pictures Digital Studios Division. She has been recognized in several areas, including the NASA Silver Snoopy Award, Rockwell International’s Engineer of the Year honoree and President’s Leadership award.
LUKAS FEIREISS
Lukas Feireiss attained his graduate education in Comparative Religious Studies, Philosophy and Ethnology, where he specialized in the dynamic relationship between architecture and other fields of knowledge. He is the curator and editor of numerous books and exhibitions and teaches at various institutions worldwide.
MARCEL BOTHA
Marcel Botha is an entrepreneur, engineer, architect and investor. He experiments with novel hardware ideas on the edge between consumer and medical products. Feeding off his passion for product acceleration and digital manufacturing, he guides product development teams from concept to commercialization. Botha founded 10XBeta in 2010, since building an international team of designers and engineers who together have initiated, accelerated, and commercialized a diverse range of venture-backed and self-funded products with notable Fortune 500 partners. He has founded, invested and sold positions in multiple companies since graduating from MIT. Current and prior affiliations include Timesulin, Infant Ventures, MIT Council for the Arts, MIT Smart Cities, MIT Mobile Experience Lab, MIT Digital Design and Fabrication Group and MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.
marcus martinez
Marcus Martinez is a designer, urbanist and educator based in Houston. His research on urban flight is captured in his latest talk ‘Movement is the Medium’ –a technologically-enabled projective city, based on human behavior, market conditions and contextual specifics. His experience on large urban projects began at EMBT in Barcelona, later adding Houston’s Discovery Green Park, The 2024 Olympics and currently leads the vision for The Pierce Skypark with Page. Martinez has been on faculty as a thesis instructor at the Boston Architecture College, visiting professor of urban design at Texas Tech and now teaches at the University of Houston in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. While developing his thesis at MIT on evolvable infrastructures, he became a researcher at the Media Lab’s Changing Places group where he developed the first iteration of the Personal Elective Vehicle (PEV) featured in a 2012 TED talk.
MARGARET CRAWFORD
Margaret Crawford is Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley, teaching courses in the history and theory of architecture, urbanism and urban history and studios focusing on small-scale urbanity. Her research focuses on the evolution, uses and meanings of urban space. She has written and edited several books including Building the Workingman’s Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns, The Car and the City: The Automobile, the Built Environment and Daily Urban Life and Everyday Urbanism, and has published numerous articles on shopping malls, public space, and other issues in the American built environment, recently investigated the rapid physical and social changes in China’s Pearl River Delta.
MARGARET NEWMAN
With over 25 years of experience as an architect and urban planner, Margaret Newman is a Principal at ARUP, focusing on public realm projects as part of the fabric and context of cities. With a deep knowledge of the design process, direct experience with key city agencies, resilient infrastructure and with the long term planning around transportation networks, she directs design for many public and private sector projects. Prior to joining ARUP, Newman headed up her own consulting firm More Urban, advising on design, and urban planning projects. Under Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Sadik-Khan, she served as Chief of Staff at the NYC Department of Transportation where she directed major agency projects including the capital construction plan for Times Square. Newman received a Master’s degree in Architecture from Princeton University, is a certified LEED BD+C professional and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
MARINA SUBERLYAK
Armed with 10 years of airline and commercial experience, Marina Suberlyak recently joined Norwegian Air Shuttle to help solidify the airline’s disruptive presence in the Transatlantic market, and beyond. Combining hands on experience in revenue, network planning and customer marketing at US Airways and JetBlue, she brings a unique perspective on identifying and nurturing opportunities for airlines and airports alike. Grounded by data at her core, in the most recent role heading JetBlue Vacations business unit, Suberlyak led research and development projects to transform packaging product stereotypes into flexible, customer-centric, digital and physical journey interconnected offering poised to modernize how airlines think about their suite of products in the future.
MARK WAIER
Mark Waier is the Director of Communications for the Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). LAMP will reduce congestion in and around the airport by constructing a people mover train that connects airport terminals to parking facilities and the Metro system. This $5.5 billion project is the largest Public Private Partnership in the state of California and the largest capital investment project for the City of Los Angeles. Prior to joining LAX, Waier served as Department Manager of Marketing and Director of Mobile Ticketing for Metrolink. During his tenure, he guided the redesign of the agency’s website and new media digital tactics which projected the agency to have the highest social media following of any public transit agency in the United States.
MARTA NOWAK
Marta Nowak is a lecturer at UCLA, AUD Suprastudio and a founding principal of AN.ONYMOUS, a trans-disciplinary design firm based in Los Angeles. Her work explores the role of architecture and design at the intersection of technology, mobility and the human body. Her office has done work for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Hummer Museum and many others. Her research at UCLA involves investigation of prosthetic devices, mobile microspaces and included collaborations with Red Bull eSports High Performance, Art Center as well as Hyperloop. Nowak also worked as an editorial assistant at Harvard Design Magazine and was a Fellow at the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) where she worked on the Cities and Climate Change Initiative.
MARTIN ZANGERL
Martin Zangerl is an Architect and Associate at UNStudio. He received his degree from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Before joining UNStudio Martin worked for several architectural offices in Austria, Germany and the USA. Martin is an all-round architect, specialized in parametric design. He has worked on several major projects, such as the Abu Dhabi Media Zone for twofour54, the UIC mixed-use high-rise towers in Shenton Way, Singapore, and the Qatar Integrated Railway, a large-scale infrastructure development for the new Doha Metro Network in Qatar.
MATTHEW NEEDHAM
Matthew Needham, AIA, LEED GA, is a Principal at HOK and Regional Leader of Aviation and Transportation. He brings over 27 years of experience in aviation planning and architecture. Needham has significant experience in the management of terminal planning and design, master planning, airport site selection, airfield and airspace planning studies, as well as environmental planning and processing. In all of his assignments, he works to ensure that the objectives of his clients are met and sustained through the life of each project.
michael koziol
Michael Koziol is an associate editor at IEEE Spectrum. He covers everything telecommunications—mobile, wireless, the Internet, and how it all fits together. He’s particularly interested in emerging and innovative networks, as well as disaster-proofing and future-proofing current networks. Previously, he covered academic misconduct and the retractions of scientific papers for the blog Retraction Watch. He has also written for Popular Science. Kozial graduated from Seattle University with bachelor’s degrees in English and physics, and earned his master’s degree in science journalism from New York University.
MICHAEL ZOELLNER
Michael Zoellner is the Managing Partner of ZF Capital, a Colorado investment company focused on developing and acquiring multifamily and mixed-use properties that require repositioning or adding value and holding them for the long term. Prior to forming this company in 2017, he was a founding partner of RedPeak Properties and Legacy Partners. Zoellner is currently the Chairman of the Colorado Multifamily Housing Alliance better government fund that represents the interests of the apartment industry. He is a Council member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and a member of the National Multi Housing Council. He is a license Real Estate Broker in Colorado and is a ULI mentor to improve diversity in the Commercial Real Estate industry. Zoellner was named an ICON of the Multifamily Industry by Colorado Real Estate Journal in 2015, as well as the Inaugural Inductee into the Apartment Association of Metro Denver Hall of Fame (2015).
MICHELLE DELK
Fascinated by the urban environment, Michelle Delk is a passionate champion of the public realm. Based in New York City, she is a Partner and Landscape Architect with Snøhetta. Delk works to cultivate trans-disciplinary collaboration for the creative advancement of our public environment. Her enthusiasm is reflected in her commitment to design and leadership within her firm and community. She’s an active board member for the Urban Design Forum and is often invited as a speaker at influential conferences, universities, and communities throughout the world. Informed by these various involvements, she seeks to discover and expand the urban landscape vernacular, furthering positive dialog between our current and future urban vision. With a natural ability for engaging diverse community and client intricacies, Delk guides complex projects ranging from master plans and brownfield redevelopments to realizations ofurban plazas, parks, streetscapes, and riverfronts.
MIKLOS DERI
Architect Miklos Deri is the creator and driving force behind Drive Through Airport. A graduate of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, he worked for more than six years at award-winning international architecture firm UNStudio. In 2013, Deri submitted a proposal to the UK Airports Commussion to respond to a forecast capacity shortage in aviation. Since 2015 he has been working as Senior Architect at Berger + Parkkinen Architects in Vienna, Austria.
MITCHELL JOACHIM
Mitchell Joachim is Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor at NYU. He was formerly an architect at Gehry Partners LLP, and Pei Cobb Freed. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, Moshe Safdie, and Martin Society for Sustainability, MIT. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The Smart List: 15 People the Next President Should Listen To." Rolling Stone magazine honored Mitchell in "The 100 People Who Are Changing America." Joachim has won many awards including; AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, Zumtobel Award for Sustainability, Architizer A+ Award, History Channel Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time Magazine Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities Car. Dwell magazine featured him as "The NOW 99" in 2012. He co-authored three books, "XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design," "Super Cells: Building with Biology," and "Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned". His work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD at Harvard University, and MArch from Columbia University.
NELLY BEN HAYOUN
Dubbed the 'Willy Wonka of Design and Science,' Nelly Ben Hayoun is an award winning explorer and director, a fearless and passionate provocateur. She is the Designer of Experiences at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, Head of Experiences at We Transfer, a Wired Innovation fellow, Advisor to the United Nations Virtual Reality Lab, a member of the International Astronautical Federation and in 2013 Icon Magazine touted Ben Hayoun as one of the 50 international designers "shaping the future." She works with leading scientists to devise subversive events and bring chaos and critical thinking amongst members of the public and institutions.
NIC SCHOLZ
Nic Scholz is a multidisciplinary designer and Co-Founder of SILO Inc. He holds a BFA in industrial design from RISD and is a fellow at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Previously he has worked with NASA conceptualizing low gravity transportation systems on celestial bodies and with Chrysler developing steering interfaces for disabled drivers. He has had products showcased in the New York Times Style Magazine. Nic is focused on human interaction with consumer electronic devices, large-scale manufacturing processes, and complex industrial systems. Currently he is building a body of large prints showcasing the internal beauty and engineering prowess of jet engines.
NIKOLAUS HAFERMAAS
Nikolaus Hafermaas is an international award-winning artist, designer, and educational leader. His Los Angeles based artist platform Ueberall International conceives and produces mediatecture installations converging digital media and spatial experiences. His artist team is responsible for designing the first award-winning SoReal virtual reality entertainment center in Beijing, China. Previously he produced the iconic data-driven sculptures eCloud for San Jose International Airport and AirField for Atlanta International Airport. Nik has just completed DAZZLE, a landmark art project for the San Diego International Airport, the world’s largest media façade made of e-paper. As the Department Chair for graduate and undergraduate Graphic Design at ArtCenter College of Design, Hafermaas has created a new curriculum, fusing print and packaging, motion and interaction design into Transmedia Design.
OSTAP RUDAKEVYCH
Ostap is a registered architect and founding partner of Clouds Architecture Office. He is a professor at Pratt Institute and has been an invited critic at various universities. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His most recent awards include first place in NASA's Mars Habitat Challenge, and consecutive AIA Honor awards for built projects in New York City. His speculative work engaging the atmosphere has been exhibited and published worldwide.
PHIL BROWN
Phil Brown is the Executive Director of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. As Executive Director, he is responsible for the operation and management of both Orlando International Airport and Orlando Executive Airport, with an annual budget of over $440 million. He currently serves as Chairman of the AAAE Airport Legislative Alliance (ALA), as a member of the AAAE Policy Review Committee (PRC), and is Vice Chairman of the Gateway Airports Council (GAC). Brown holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, and is an Accredited Airport Executive by the American Airport Association of Airport Executives.
REINIER DE GRAAF
Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. In 2002, he became director of AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union. He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning. De Graaf has recently worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow.
richard magerenge
Richard Magerenge was born and raised on an Island called Mfangano, a two-hour boat ride from the mainland on Lake Victoria, Kenya. He is an undergraduate social scientist, on development, currently Obama Foundation, Africa Leaders fellow. He has been involved in health, environment and ICT to bring change on the lives of the people in Mfangano Island. He is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Ekialo Kiona Center of Organic Health Response, which is a community-based organization based on the Island. He loves getting to know people, working in teams, and learning on new technologies.
ROB EISENSTAT
Rob Eisenstat is the Chief Architect of the Port Authority of New York and New JerseyEngineering Department, an award-winning multi-disciplinary in-house department of architects, landscape architects, planners, and engineers who provide design and construction management services for the agency. He has been an architect in the Engineering Department for the past 27 years. He holds NCARB and LEED certification, and is a member of the Architectural League of New York and the American Institute of Architects, where he has been co-chair of the New York Chapter Transportation + Infrastructure Committee since 2007.
ROBERT CHICAS
Robert Chicas is the global director of Aviation + Transportation based in HOK’s New York office and serves on the firm’s board of directors. He specializes in leading large-scale airport projects and is recognized throughout the industry for his ability to lead multidisciplinary teams through the delivery of complex projects. Chicas regularly speaks at industry events including Passenger Terminal Expo and the ACC/AAAE symposium. As an expert on aviation trends and enhancing the passenger experience, he has authored or contributed to more than a dozen articles in design and aviation trade publications including Passenger Terminal Today, Centerlines, BD+C Magazine, and The Atlantic’s CityLab. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute School of Architecture.
roger soto
Roger Soto is recognized worldwide for his design expertise in complex corporate, higher education, hospitality, and healthcare planning and design for leading institutions throughout the United States and abroad. He is highly regarded for his expansive knowledge of LEED and sustainability design, his trenchant approach to design and his success in guiding institutions to achieve their strategic goals through optimal facility planning and design. Roger is Design Principal of HOK’s Gulf Coast Region. He is a member of the firm’s Design Board and serves on the Board of Directors. Through his work and thoughtful design leadership, Soto has served an integral role in steering the direction of region today. He is passionate about solving complex problems and weaving his work into the fabric of the city. Based in Houston, he leads collaborative, multidisciplinary design teams on projects in Dallas, Houston, and Tampa.
rusty bienvenue
Rusty Bienvenue has served as Executive Director of the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation since October, 2010. He has more than 20 years experience running non-profit professional associations having run two large legal associations prior to joining AIA Houston. He is a recovering attorney who began his career as a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and later worked for a large Houston law firm defending multi-national corporations involved in large scale product liability litigation. Bienvenue was born in Houston, but grew up in 11 different cities (small towns really) in 7 different states. He returned to Texas to attend the University of Texas at Austin and to Houston to attend the University of Houston Law Center.
SALVADOR RIVAS
Salvador Rivas is Associate Partner at Foster+Partners. He is a qualified architect in both Mexico and the United Kingdom and has collaborated at Foster+Partners for the past ten years on a diverse range of project typologies such as residential, office, mixed-use, hospitality and master planning projects in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Rivas has also participated in the design development and coordination of large and complex infrastructure projects such as the Expansion of Tocumen International Airport in Panama City and the Mexico City New International Airport (NACIM). He is currently based in Mexico City as part of Foster+Partners team for NAICM project.
sam ximenes
Sam Ximenes is a Space Architect with over 30 years’ experience in the aerospace industry with NASA, DoD, and international space programs. He has held executive management positions at Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, and Futron Corporation with responsibility for business strategies for growth and development of their respective business units in advanced programs and technology insertion for space systems. While at Grumman Corporation he led systems integration and habitation efforts of international partner laboratory modules for the NASA Space Station program. He is currently CEO of XArc Exploration Architecture Corporation, a space architecture consulting firm he founded in 2007. He was a member of the design team for Spaceport America, and United Kingdom spaceport site assessments, and led the effort developing the economic and business case for viability of Houston Spaceport for the City of Houston.
SAMANTHA FLORES
Samantha Flores is an architect at Corgan in Dallas, Texas. She has 5 years of experience working with Corgan’s Aviation Studio as an experiential design specialist, developing the evolution of the passenger experience. Her research concentrates on in-depth passenger profiling, design-applied wayfinding analysis, and developing predictions and implementation of new technologies in aviation design. These ideas have developed through her research-driven design work on several projects; one such as the new satellite concourse at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, which upon completion in 2018, will be the largest satellite concourse in the world. Flores received a Masters of Architecture from Princeton University in 2012, and her BArch from Oklahoma State University in 2010.
SILA SIVA
Sila Siva graduated from the architecture department of Istanbul Technical University and studied Urban Design & Spatial Planning at the St. Lucas School of Architecture in Belgium. She is an architect and project coordinator at Istanbul-based Autoban. The firm works across architecture and interiors, product and experiential design, forging a reputation for thoughtfulness and experimentation. Their work has redefined Istanbul’s cityscape, including numerous hospitality, residential and public realm developments, and is also found in London, Madrid, Hong Kong, Moscow and China, as well as Azerbaijan.
Stephen Altemus
Stephen Altemus currently serves as the President and CEO of Intuitive Machines. Founded 4 years ago, Intuitive Machines invents hardware and software solutions for businesses that can benefit from varying degrees of autonomy in their systems, processes, and operations. Intuitive Machines has been solving significant challenges across multiple industries, providing solutions in intelligent autonomous systems, including complex computational modeling, simulations, and digital analytics. Prior to founding Intuitive Machines, Altemus served as the Deputy Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), a Center charged with overseeing human spaceflight plans and programs for the Agency. He lead and directed human spaceflight architecting efforts identifying affordable concepts for taking humans to the edge of deep space while growing the US technological economy and continuing international competitiveness, providing the Nation with a sustainable and flexible approach to addressing the major challenges in human spaceflight.
STEPHEN BARRETT
Stephen Barrett is a Partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), where he has worked for over 25 years. He was project architect for the Bordeaux Law Courts project, France; Terminal 4 Barajas Satellite, Madrid; and for the new Control Tower at Heathrow Airport. He spent two years seconded to the RSHP Madrid office as project architect for Campus Palmas Altas in Seville. In 2008, Barrett led a multi-disciplinary team participating in the international consultancy on the future of metropolitan Paris “Le Grand Pari(s)”, a masterplan for Greater Paris 2025 commissioned by former President Sarkozy, examining the changing needs of urban Paris in the 21st Century. Since 2012 he has been leading the team that won an international competition for the new Terminal at Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport and from 2016 he has been leading the team for Geneva Airport Aile-Est. Barrett is a member of the RSHP sustainability group. He led the LEED certification process on the Campus Palmas Altas project in Seville and managed the environmental footprint audit of the practice’s own activities in 2008. He is a qualified BREEAM International Assessor.
STEVE DUMAS
Steve Dumas is the design lead of Westfield’s Architecture Studio, responsible for the placemaking and experience-setting elements of Westfield’s U.S. portfolio. Dumas oversees the architecture, ambiance, and furnishings for all Westfield shopping centers, airport projects and transit hubs. Since joining the company in 1994, he has been instrumental in the experiential components that comprise every Westfield project, from architecture to individual tenant design, marketing communication, branding, and amenity elements. Recent notable projects overseen by Dumas include Terminals 1, 2, 6, and the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX, and the design of the recently completed $1 billion redevelopment of Westfield Century City, Westfield’s flagship shopping center located in the heart of Los Angeles.
steve kemp
Steve Kemp is program leader for animal biosciences at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and professor in tropical genetics at the University of Edinburgh. He has expertise in the genomics of tropical adaptation, particularly host-pathogen interactions and mechanisms of tolerance and resistance as well as informatics systems. He leads ILRI’s cross-cutting LiveGene initiative and the Animal Biosciences Program.
terry biggio
Terry L. Biggio is the Regional Administrator for FAA’s Southwest Region, which covers the states of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico. Appointed to the position in 2018, Biggio is the FAA Administrator’s principal representative for this region and its 4,900 employees. As Regional Administrator, he provides corporate leadership and represents the FAA before industry, government organizations, and civic and private interest groups. He directs delivery of corporate services in the region including command and communication operations, building and facility services, executive services, and cross-organizational project integration. Biggio began his FAA career as an air traffic controller in 1981 and is a certified Private Pilot. He has served the FAA for 37 years, and became a member of FAA’s Senior Executive Service in 2013.
THOMAS KONG
Thomas Kong is a Singapore registered architect and an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Besides his teaching responsibility, he chairs the Interior Architecture program and has co-chaired the Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects. He has published, spoken and conducted design workshops on the social and cultural concerns surrounding vast, interconnected interior environments and is currently researching for a publication on the new Changi Jewel in Singapore as a new form of 21st century interior urbanism in the city-state. Kong is a member of the Project for Public Space’s Placemaking Leadership Council and was recognized by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation as the organization’s 2014 Visionary for his contribution to interior design education.
TOBIAS NOLTE
Tobias Nolte is a co-founder of Certain Measures—an office for design science. Prior to founding his own practice, he was a Director at Gehry Technologies in New York where he led a team of architects and engineers in the implementation of parametric and computational methods in design and construction. He was previously a director at the Europe office of Gehry Technologies in Paris where he has worked with a variety of leading international design firms including Gehry Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Snohetta, UNStudio, Coop Himmelb(l)au and several others.
TOM THEOBALD
Tom Theobald is a principal at Fentress Architects and co-director of the firm’s aviation practice. Prior to joining Fentress in 1992, he worked with Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates. Tom has over 20 years of aviation expertise, and has completed over 17 million square feet of international aviation work with such notable projects as Doha, Charleston, Raleigh-Durham, Portland, Sacramento, Tom Bradley International Terminal and Alaska Airlines’ Terminal 6, both at LAX. He has a keen understanding of aviation trends, airport operations and specializes in complex problem-solving and phasing. Theobald has presented at ACI and Passenger Terminal World conferences.
WAYNE PLACE
Wayne Place is the Alumni Association Distinguished Professor at North Carolina State University. He has a PhD in Physics and a Master's Degree in Architecture. He is a registered engineer with a specialty in structures. Since 1986, he has been on the Faculty of the School of Architecture at North Carolina State University, where he has focused his research on building systems integration, with an emphasis on daylighting, thermal systems, and structures. Place has taught and written books on daylighting, and teaches graduate studios focusing on airport design and graduate studios focusing on tall-building design.
william maluki
William Maluki, Head of Engineering at the Kenyan, Makerspace – Gearbox, is an Engineer pioneering a new CNC-based pipe bender. Designed for manufacturers of metal frames—think wheelbarrows; steel-tube furniture; or seats for matatus, Kenya’s fleet of privately-owned minibuses. He has a deep conviction that local innovators hold the key to solving local challenges especially equipping small scale manufacturers with tools and equipment specifically designed for their unique technological and financial needs.
wilson kagabo
Wilson Kagabo is the Managing Director of Locus Dynamics Ltd – a Ngali Holdings Ltd Company. He is also a Board Director at Akagera Aviation Ltd. Kagabo is an active member of the Rwanda drone industry, sitting on various national technical committees and working groups. Previously, Kagabo has served different roles, namely: Acting CEO of Ngali Holdings, university lecturer, researcher, writer, actor, journalist, and photographer among others. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Unmanned Systems Engineering.