PEOPLE
Founding Director
![Ursula Eicker Ursula Eicker](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_872898920/grid-container-parsys/offset_block/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1678729882565.jpg)
Ursula Eicker
Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering
Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities
“Next-gen cities are built with a life-cycle approach, where resource use follows circular economy principles, where all energy is produced by renewables and where urban dwellers meet and create culture.”
Cluster Co-Directors
![Pierre Gauthier Pierre Gauthier](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1677083868513.jpg)
Pierre Gauthier
Built and Natural Environments
Associate Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment
“A next-gen city is a city that cares and nurtures. A next-gen city mobilizes its ingenuity, collaborative skills and willpower to create nurturing buildings, infrastructures and public places and spaces that are also spaces of citizenship.”
![Erkan Yönder Erkan Yönder](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_2122942783/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1716488615610.jpg)
Erkan Yönder
Built and Natural Environments
Associate Professor, Department of Finance
“Next-generation cities will have smart buildings and infrastructure measuring environmental and social footprints; and develop communities being aware of environmental and social impacts. Lowering carbon emissions and climate impacts continuously, healthy buildings, and inclusive societies are some examples of the priorities of the next-generation cities.”
![Janis Timm-Bottos Janis Timm-Bottos](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_1802136726/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1686597056775.jpg)
Baron Tymas
Design, Arts, Culture and Community
Associate Professor, Department of Music
“Thriving cities and towns of the future must stimulate arts and culture to build community, engage diverse constituencies and motivate us to act more sustainably — environmentally, socially and economically.”
![Meghan Joy Meghan Joy](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_1080293402/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1686597168303.jpg)
Silvano De la Llata
Design, Arts, Culture and Community
Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
“The city is the realm of strangers. I want to contribute to creating spaces where strangers — even people with profound differences — see themselves in the eyes of the others and thrive.”
![Govind Gopakumar Govind Gopakumar](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_211259339/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1686597104993.jpg)
Govind Gopakumar
Mobile, Secure and Sharing Cities
Associate Professor and Chair, Centre for Engineering in Society
“Transformative pathways that will address systemic lock-ins and barriers are the way forward to achieve the goal of sustainable, equitable and resilient next-generation cities.”
![Chun Wang Chun Wang](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1561700425/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_130630715/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1686597199944.jpg)
Chun Wang
Mobile, Secure and Sharing Cities
Professor, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE)
“Next-generation cities pursue a citizen-focused approach which leverages smart, integrated, and optimized services enabled by innovative technologies to improve citizens' welfare and foster economic growth.”
Manager
![Michael Bossert Michael Bossert](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container_1243306101/grid-container-parsys/offset_block/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1678730489206.jpg)
Michael Bossert
Research Innovation and Business Development
"The ability to innovate decides our future, and innovative capability starts in the mind - with our attitude. Next-generation cities need catalysts and decision-makers who are equipped with an open ear, a playful mind, critical thinking skills, curiosity, and the ability to master complex challenges in a collaborative way. With the Next-Generation Cities Institute, we created a space where persons of all ages and backgrounds can co-create the future."
Advisors
![Ivona Bossert Ivona Bossert](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1677775424262.jpg)
Ivona Bossert
Knowledge, Mobilisation Advisor
"As a designer, I recognize the need to rethink public spaces and look at them from the unique perspective of their users. Understanding different behaviours and lifestyles will allow us to create accessible, inclusive and pleasant multi-generational next-generation urban experiences."
![Christopher Gibbs Christopher Gibbs](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_217059798/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1679059019671.jpg)
Christopher Gibbs
Senior Advisor, Urban Simulation Platform & Gamification
"By visualizing Next Generation Cities and allowing you to play with them in real-time, we expand the reach of our research: empowering smarter decisions and educating greener behaviours."
![Oriol Gavaldà Oriol Gavaldà](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_815005271/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1679059048136.jpg)
Oriol Gavaldà
Lead, Zero Carbon Communities, Next-Generation Cities Institute and part of the UNIVER/CITY 2030 initiative
"Joining the Institute's team is an excellent opportunity for me to help bring all the knowledge I have acquired in the private and social sectors in Spain to Montréal. By bringing all our research ideas into real-world practical cases, we can show that next-generation cities can be a reality. However, it is key to address all these solutions using bottom-up approaches involving social stakeholders."
![Florian Preusse Florian Preusse](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_1964198864/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1719417911268.jpg)
Florian Preusse
Lead, Sustainable Mobility, Next-Generation Cities Institute
"The Next-Gen Cities Institute provides me with a great opportunity to integrate my ideas for sustainable urban mobility systems into a cross-sectoral, holistic vision to decarbonize our cities and transform them into thriving, green, and inclusive ecosystems. By linking our research to local challenges, communicating science comprehensibly and partnering with public and private stakeholders, we will move closer to achieving this vision."
![Luce Beaulieu Luce Beaulieu](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_619834694/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1712927363476.jpg)
Luce Beaulieu
Strategic Advisor for the Climate Colab and part of the UNIVER/CITY 2030 initiative
"In my mind's eye, Next-Generation cities will exist well within the Earth's carrying capacity, and they will be examples, drivers and test beds for fair and sustainable innovations. All of its citizens and organizations will benefit from healthy, green, inclusive and safe built and natural infrastructures. They will be able to collaboratively design their city in open and equitable processes and coexist harmoniously within healthy and clean natural ecosystems."
![Jean-Noé Landry Jean-Noé Landry](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_1804240173/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1679059075782.jpg)
Jean-Noé Landry
Senior Strategic Advisor for the inter-university Data Studio initiative of the UNIVER/CITY 2030 program
"In the context of the climate emergency and socio-ecological transition, new collaborative models are necessary to facilitate the sharing and application of data and knowledge across institutions and sectors in the public interest. Anchored communities most impacted by this complex and accelerating crisis, I’m excited to bring to life this ambitious vision of an inter-university Data Studio with my years of local and international experience at the intersection of data, technology, and democracy.”
![Marie-Catherine Proville Marie-Catherine Proville](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_116066473/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1712927446993.jpg)
Meagan Smith
Team Coordinator
“Being a part of the Next-Generation Cities Institute means being a part of an innovative future. It’s a dynamic environment where students, faculty, staff, and other collaborators can work together to advance and transform the quality of life for upcoming generations. Together, we’re not just imagining the future but crafting it.”
![Marie-Catherine Proville Marie-Catherine Proville](/content/concordia/en/research/cities-institute/people/_jcr_content/content-main/grid_container/grid-container-parsys/offset_block_2081231055/adaptiveimage.img.full.medium.jpg/1712927517904.jpg)
Connor Cook
Professional Team Support
"I believe that when we attentively practice deeper forms of listening, we connect more deeply to ourselves and one another.
Our senses become our awareness, which becomes our way of treating ourselves and our neighbours; this is the way to self care, but also to equity, accessibility, and healing.
What are you hearing, right now?
I listen, I reflect, I listen again - together we listen, together we reflect; we are building a more sustainable community."