From Vulnerable Places to Resilient Territories : The Path to
Sustainable Development
27 – 30 April 2014, Fábrica de Negócios, Fortaleza, Brazil
Tweeting about this event? Please use hashtag #RSABrazil2014
Plenary Speakers Biographies
Monday 27 April 2014
Prof. Clelio Campolina Diniz is the rector of Universidade Federal de Minas
Gerais (UFMG) and member of the National Council for Social and Economic Development
(CDES). He has acted as Dean of Economics, Accountancy and Business at Universidade
Federal de Minas Gerais, president of the Technology Park in Belo Horizonte and of the
Economics sector of the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level
Personnel (CAPES), among several others. He is recognised as one of the leading
researchers in Regional Development in Brazil, and is the author of a vast awarded
research on the field.
Tuesday 29 April 2014
Elkin Velasquez is the UN-Habitat´s Regional Director for Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Prof. Carlos Azzoni
is the Dean of Economics, Accountancy and Business at
Universidade de São Paulo (USP). He is founder and member of the Brazilian Association for
Regional Studies, member of the International Relations Council at USP and of the editorial
board of 4 international and 6 Brazilian journals. He has acted as Distinguished Visiting
Professor at the University of Illinois, and member of the Regional Science Association
International scientific council. His research is focused on regional imbalances, income
inequalities, convergence and investment allocation.
Wednesday 30 April 2014
Prof. Robert Wilson Robert H. Wilson is Mike Hogg Professor of Urban Policy
at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin. He is
Director of the School’s Policy Research Institute and the former Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs and Associate Dean for Research. He served as the Director of the
Brazil Center and the Urban Issues Program at UT. His areas of interest include urban
and regional policy and metropolitan governance. Among his current projects are a
study of the legacies of Lyndon B. Johnson’s domestic policy agenda and metropolitan
governance in Africa and Asia.
Among his publications are "Metropolitan Governance in the Federalist Americas: Case
Studies and Strategies for Equitable and Integrated Development," co-ed. (University of
Notre Dame Press, forthcoming). "Urban Segregation and Governance in the Americas,"
co-ed. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). "Governance in the Americas: Decentralization, Democracy and Subnational
Government in Brazil, Mexico and the United States," co-authored (University of Notre Dame Press), "Public Policy
and Community: Activism and Governance in Texas" (University of Texas Press), "States and the Economy:
Policymaking and Decentralization" (Praeger), "The Political Economy of Brazil: Public Policies in an Era of
Transition," coauthored (University of Texas Press), and over sixty journal articles, book chapters, and policy reports.
He has served as: Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Recife, Brazil); Visiting International
Philips Professorship at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (São Paulo, Brazil); Fulbright/FLAD Chair in Knowledge
Management Policies at the Advanced Technical Institute (Lisbon, Portugal); Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington, DC); and was inducted into the Brazilian National Order of the
Southern Cross, rank of Commander.
He has collaborated on projects with the United Nations Development Program, Organization of American States,
the Urban Institute, Texas Legislative Education Board, Texas Historical Commission, National Academy of Science,
the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Congressional Research
Service, The Fulbright Commission, and the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation. He holds a PhD in urban and regional
planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Prof. Simin Davoudi is Professor of Environment Policy & Planning at the School of
Architecture, Planning & Landscape and the ‘Justice & Governance’ Theme Coordinator at
Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability (NIReS), Newcastle University. She is past
President of the Association of the European Schools of Planning (AESOP), elected member of
the Academy of Social Sciences, member of the UK Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) Grant Assessment Panel C; Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) Sub-Panel 16
(Architecture, Built Environment and Planning); and DEFRA/DECC Social Science Expert Panel.
She has held visiting professorships at Universities of Amsterdam, Karlskrona and Nijmegen; led the UK Office of
Deputy Prime Minister’s Planning Research Network; served as member of the Department of Communities and
Local Government’s Expert Panel on Housing Markets and Planning Analysis; Research and Knowledge Committee of
the Royal Town Planning Institute; Expert Group for the EU DG Environment (on Thematic Strategy on Sustainable
Urban Management) and DG Regional Policy (on Green paper on Territorial Cohesion), the Irish and Austrian EU
Presidency Seminars; is Advisory Group for the UK ESPON Contact Point, Advisory Board of the Irish Social Science
Platform, Departmental Advisory Council for University of Hong Kong, Advisory Board of the BTH Swedish School of
Planning, Expert Advisory Group for the ex-post Evaluation of the Interreg III (2006) programme. She has undertaken
peer reviews for the Government’s Chief Scientist’s Foresight programme and served on Expert Review Panels of
national research programmes in the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Portugal; was co-chair of
ACSP-AESOP Chicago Joint Congress Committee; is the Editor of Journal of Environmental Planning &
Management, founding member of the editorial team of 21stCentury Society (former Journal of the Academy of
Social Sciences, and member of editorial board of 10 international, peer-reviewed journals. Her most recent books
include: Conceptions of Space and Place in Strategic Spatial Planning (Routledge, 2009), and Planning for Climate
Change(Earthscan, 2009). Simin has undertaken research for a wide range of international and national
organisations and research funding bodies and is published widely.