Dialogue (1)

John Zacharias

Chair Professor, Peking University, Beijing, China

Dr. John Zacharias is currently Chair Professor at Peking University where he runs the Laboratory on Urban Process Modelling and Applications. He is interested in people-environment relations, with a focus on urban planning, transport planning and urban design. How people respond to the planned and designed environment is studied using observation, remote sensing, and participation of sample populations in surveys and experiments. How people perceive the planned environment is also examined. While the studies have a basic scientific approach and are published in the leading international journals in these fields, they are conducted with an eye to policy formulation. At Peking University, he teaches research methodology for students of the planning sciences, leads a seminar course in planning theory and supervises graduate students in the preparation of their graduation theses. He is frequently asked to speak at city planning bureaux and their related institutes and also to offer comments on specific plans and projects. Prior to his appointment at Peking University in 2012 he was longtime Director of the Urban Studies Programme and the Urban Planning Programme, housed in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, where he also served as Chair for several years. He served on the Commission de la Représentation Électorale du Québec from 2005 to 2010. His Ph.D. was awarded by the Université de Montréal in 1990, where he also co-taught an urban planning laboratory for the Institut d’urbanisme, during the years of his doctoral research. He also worked in the administration of McGill University as a liaison person with the Gouvernement du Québec in the mid-1980s. His earlier career as an urban planner was with the City of Vancouver and the British Columbia government, following his graduate degree in urban planning from the University of British Columbia.