Urbanization Project Team

Shlomo (Solly) Angel is a Senior Research Scholar at the Urbanization Project, Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning at NYU Wagner, and Lecturer at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School. Angel is an expert on urban development policy in the developing world, having advised the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. His current work is focused on documenting urban expansion and planning for the expansion of cities in the developing world.

Alain Bertaud is a Senior Research Scholar at the Urbanization Project. His work draws on decades of experience as an urban planner, most recently as a consultant to the World Bank. Bertaud focuses on the interaction between land markets, land use regulations, and urban form, incorporating the key insights of urban economics into an operational approach to planning. Initially, he will devote his time at the Urbanization Project to writing Order Without Design, a book on the theoretical framework that informs his approach to urban planning.

Marie-Agnes Bertaud is a Visiting Scholar at the Urbanization Project. She is an expert on remote sensing satellite and Google Earth images interpretation for urban planning. She has conducted a number of urban land use studies around the world, most of them related to projects financed by the World Bank. Most recently, using GIS (Geographic Information System) she completed land use and population density studies for cities of India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, and used census population data and land use to evaluate the feasibility of infrastructure and transport projects.

Mauro De Lorenzo is a Senior Research Scholar and Deputy Director at the Urbanization Project. Before joining NYU, De Lorenzo was Vice President at the John Templeton Foundation and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. From 2007-2010, De Lorenzo served in a pro bono capacity as the deputy to Senator Bill Frist on the board of directors of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Brandon Fuller is a Research Scholar and Deputy Director at the Urbanization Project and Director of Charter Cities, a research non-profit focused on urbanization, governance, and development. Prior to NYU, Fuller was part of the education technology start-up, Aplia, and taught economics at the University of Montana. Find him on Twitter: @fuller_brandon.

Katherine King is Associate Director of the Urbanization Project; she has a Masters in Public Health from NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Paul Romer is Director of the Urbanization Project and Professor of Economics at the New York University Stern School of Business. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD). In 2002, Romer received the Recktenwald Prize for his seminal contributions to New Growth Theory. His recent work focuses on the potential for new cities, or what Romer calls charter cities, to generate reform and growth in the developing world.

Maya Salwen is Program Coordinator of the Urbanization Project. She is pursuing a dual Masters in Business Administration / Masters in Public Administration through NYU Stern School of Business and NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Non-Resident Scholars
Reuben Abraham is a non-resident scholar at the Urbanization Project. Reuben is Executive Director of the Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions (CEMS) at the Indian School of Business (ISB), where he serves on the Next Generation Leaders Board of the school. Reuben is a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) India Advisory Council and serves as Vice-Chair for WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals. He is an independent director on the board of the Soros Economic Development Fund and a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He is also on the board of First Home Solutions, which builds low-income housing across India; RenewGen, a waste-to-energy company; and the DLF Foundation, which has been set up by India’s largest real estate company.

Matthew E. Kahn is a non-resident scholar at the Urbanization Project. Matt is Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment, the Department of Economics, the Department of Public Policy, the Anderson School of Management and the UCLA Law School. He is the author of Green Cities: Urban Growth and the Environment and Climatopolis. His research focuses on environmental, urban, real estate, and energy economics.

Kari Kohn is a non-resident scholar at the Urbanization Project and Director of Programs at Charter Cities, a non-profit focused on the potential for reform zones in the developing world. Kohn also has experience as a special situations investment analyst at several buy side funds and at Morgan Stanley. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from Duke University.