Gerrit Knaap is Professor of Urban Studies and Planning and Executive Director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland. Knaap earned his B.S. from Willamette University, his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, and received post-doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, all in economics.

Knaap’s research interests include the housing markets and policy, economics and politics of land use planning, the efficacy of economic development instruments, and the impacts of environmental policy. On these subjects, Knaap has published over 50 articles in journals that include the Journal of the American Planning Association, the Journal of Urban Economics, Land Economics, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Policy Analysis and Management; and State and Local Government Review. He received the Chester Rapkin award for the best paper published in Volume 10 of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, with Greg Lindsey he received the 1998 best of ACSP award, and in 2006 he received the Outstanding Planner Award from the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Funding for his research, in excess of $5.0 million, has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and numerous other federal, state, and local government agencies. Knaap is the co-author or co-editor of six books: Incentives, Regulations, and Plans: The Role of States and Nation States in Smart Growth Planning; Partnerships for Smart Growth: University and Community Collaboration for Better Public Places; Land Market Monitoring for Smart Urban Growth; The Regulated Landscape: Lessons on State Land Use Planning from Oregon; Spatial Development in Indonesia: Review and Prospects; and Environmental Program Evaluation: A Primer. He currently serves on the State of Maryland’s Smart Growth Subcabinet, the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission, and the Science and Technical Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Bay Commission. He previously served on the Development Capacity Task Force appointed by former Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich and on the Task Force on the Future of Growth and Development in Maryland appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley.