Subhrajit “Subhro” Guhathakurtahas been appointed as Director of the Georgia Tech Center for Geographic Information Systems, a leading producer of research in geo-spatial technologies housed within the College of Architecture. He will also serve as Professor in the School of City and Regional Planning, continuing a distinguished academic career of 18 years.

Guhatharkurta will cultivate Georgia Tech’s academic and research leadership in urban modeling computer applications; economic development planning; and environmental planning. Beginning in January 2012 he will serve as editor of the internationally regarded Journal of Planning Education and Research, the quarterly journal of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. 

Most recently, he was Professor and Associate Director of the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. There, he also served on the executive committee in the GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation and held an appointment in the School of Sustainability and its Global Institute for Sustainability.

Guhathakurta’s work is in developing tools that generate future urban scenarios to inform critical debates, most recently around socioeconomic conditions and ecological prospects. He has authored or edited five books and 44 journal articles and book chapters. His article on the interface between urban modeling and planning theory was awarded the Chester Rapkin Award for the best paper in the Journal of Planning Education and Research. His current research also includes the impact of urban heat islands on water demand, and urban planning in the era of climate change.

He brings experience leading multidisciplinary research teams in long-term, funded projects. He helped create the Urban Modeling and Simulation Lab in the Herberger Center in Arizona State University’s College of Design, where he also directed the Digital Phoenix project examining socioeconomic and environmental impacts of urban-growth trends in metropolitan Phoenix.

Professor Guhathakurta has a strong track record of uniting planning researchers internationally, having held short term appointments at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, University of Queensland (Australia), and Technical University of Kaiserlautern (Germany), and having worked with the North American Center for Transborder Studies.  

Steven French, director of the Center for Geographic Information Systems from 1996 to 2011, now serves as associate dean for research in the College of Architecture. 

“Dr. Guhathakurta is an outstanding researcher and a leading planning scholar,” said French. “We are lucky to have him join us at Georgia Tech and I am confident that I am leaving the GIS Center in good hands with him.” 

School of City and Regional Planning School Chair Bruce Stiftel added, “Subhro Guhathakurta brings unique insights into the next generation of technological tools for addressing questions of sustainability and urban form. He will build upon Georgia Tech’s historical leadership in the introduction of new technology for city planning practice, expanding the horizons of the planning profession substantively and geographically.”

Professor Guhatharka received a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley; a Master of City and Regional Planning degree from Iowa State University; and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Jadavpur University in India.