Countdown to 2020: Memorable Moments at the Mansueto Institute
The year 2019 marks the end of our second annual full cycle: it was a busy year, characterized by fast growth and development. We doubled our staff, including new capabilities in communications, computation and data. We also developed new events and research infrastructure towards our goal of becoming a leading hub for urbanism, dedicated to training the next generation of urban scholars and practitioners worldwide.
To this effect, the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation is now working systematically on all fronts—research, training and education—to help create a richer and deeper understanding of the human condition in cities, its potential for positive change and the many challenges ahead. Undergraduates can now major in Environmental and Urban Studies with a new class in Urban Science. We are also working to create a new graduate Certificate Program in Sustainable Urban Development and to expand Urban Studies education and research opportunities for our students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In the spirit of a new decade of progress and possibilities, here’s a countdown by the numbers of memorable moments at the Mansueto Institute this past year.
- 250 people attended our signature fall event, the Global Symposium on Sustainable Cities and Neighborhoods, convening experts on sustainable urban development at the local level across government, technology, international organizations, community-based organizations, academia and architecture
- 53 notable faculty and participants joined our annual Global Sustainability Summer School at the Santa Fe Institute to discuss the future of urban sustainability
- 19 seminal papers in our Working Paper Series published
- 10 leading urban scientists visited as part of our Lunch Colloquium Series, sharing their cutting-edge findings with our growing research community
- 10 Urban Doctoral Fellows began a yearlong writing and professionalization experience to further their research on urban issues
- 7 Kreisman Graduate Fellows graduated this year, our inaugural cohort of emerging leaders in housing scholarship and practice
- 5 new Institute Postdoctoral Fellows joined our ranks, among the brightest minds in the scientific study of cities across anthropology, sociology, ecology and other disciplines
- 4 undergraduate student researchers traveled to the Galapagos Islands to map the evolution of the built environment and resource consumption
- 3 Urban Readers Series events held in partnership with Seminary Co-op Bookstores featuring UChicago’s faculty authors and urban scholars worldwide who think and write about cities
- 1 Million Neighborhoods Map launched, providing the first comprehensive look at slums and informal settlements around the world
These achievements would not be possible without a rich set of partnerships in research, policy, civic life and technology here at the University of Chicago and all around the world. We are grateful for all of your continued support, enthusiasm, and encouragement.
We hope you will join us in the critical year ahead where political turmoil, environmental challenges and socioeconomic stresses will continue to shape our experience globally, and where the role of cities as places where such tensions can be met and transcended into new opportunities will be more important than ever.