Bishwapriya Sanyal

Bishwapriya (Bish) Sanyal serves as the Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning at MIT, where he directs the Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) and the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. After joining MIT in 1984 with a multidisciplinary background including degrees in Architecture, Urban Planning, and International Development Planning, he has held several leadership positions, including Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (1994-2002), Chair of MIT Faculty (2007-2009), and Head of the International Development Group. As Principal Investigator of the $10-million MIT-USAID Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE) from 2013 to 2017, he advanced innovative approaches to technology assessment in developing nations. His extensive research spans urban development, informal economies, and planning theory, culminating in five books including "Planning Ideas that Matter" (MIT Press, 2012). His contributions have earned numerous honors, including the MacVicar Faculty Award for teaching excellence (2011), the Distinguished Planning Educator Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and the 2018 Gill-Lim Award for research on humanistic globalization. Through his consultancy work with UNDP, World Bank, and various governments across four continents, he continues to shape international development planning while advancing urban policy solutions worldwide