Professor Emeritus Anne Vernez Moudon (1945–2025) was a world-renowned scholar whose work in urban design, pedestrian safety, and public health influenced how we understand and experience cities worldwide.
To honor Anne Vernez Moudon’s rich legacy of urban design and planning scholarship, the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Urban Design & Planning, jointly with the Built Environment Ph.D. Program, and the CBE Office of Research combined the CBE Research Showcase with the Annual PhD Symposium to celebrate CBE research and reflect on Professor Moudon’s work and its worldwide impact in a two-day research event — From Ideas to Impact: CBE Research Showcase and Annual PhD Symposium. This celebration honored Professor Moudon’s impact through a poster session and symposium that featured key themes in her research: urban morphology and design, transportation and mobility, and active living and public health.
The event kicked off the evening of April 9 with a research showcase and reception featuring 30 posters from CBE students, faculty, and staff representing the diverse research conducted across built environment disciplines, labs, and centers.
From Ideas to Impact: Research Showcase
For student-led posters, a panel of faculty evaluated for two awards based on their overall composition and impact. Mohammad Tabatabaei Manesh (left) won the Innovation Award in recognition of his compelling research; “A Physics-Informed Machine Learning approach for Predicting the Acoustic Performance of Ventilated Sound Barriers”.
Hongfei Li’s (right) work was selected for the Communication Award, for her poster entitled “Embodied Presence in Urban Landscape Walk: A Neuro-phenomenological Mobile EEG Study of Attentional-Sensorimotor Dynamics in Opera Park” which had the most compelling presentation. Both Mohammad and Hongfei received a $250 cash prize and were recognized by Professor and Associate Dean of Research Carrie Sturts Dossick at the event.
Annual Ph.D. Symposium
On the second day of the event, students, alumni, faculty, and industry professionals gathered in Gould Court, where UW and visiting industry scholars — many of whom were former students of Professor Moudon — shared their connections to her and presented research focused on themes of Moudon’s work. Dr. Gary Hack, Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning and former Dean of the School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, and Anne’s close friend and former colleague at MIT, was the keynote speaker
Speakers presenting research centered on urban morphology and design included:
- Dan Abramson, Associate Professor of Urban Design & Planning
- Saida Sobhani, Ph.D., AICP, Acting Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning
- Sohyun Park, Professor of Architectural Engineering (Seoul National University)
- Paul Hess, Professor and Associate Undergraduate Chair (University of Toronto)
Presenting themes around transportation and mobility were:
- Don MacKenzie, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Rachel Berney, Associate Professor / Director, Urban@UW
- Ruth Steiner, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning / Director, Center for Health and the Built Environment (University of Florida)
- Kevin Krizek, Professor of Environmental Studies and Design (University of Colorado).
In the afternoon, covering topics related to active living and public health were:
- Andy Dannenberg, Affiliate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and Urban Design & Planning
- Brian E Saelens, Adjunct Professor of Health Systems and Population Health
- Karen Chen, Assistant Professor of Urban Design & Planning
- Chanam Lee, Professor and Executive Associate Dean, Architecture (Texas A&M University)
The day concluded with presentations on transportation education and workforce development by:
- Bart Treece, Director of the Mobility Innovation Center at CoMotion
- Cynthia Chen, Professor of Civil & Environmental / Industrial & Systems Engineering
- Jan Whittington, Associate Professor of Urban Design & Planning
- Jeff Ban, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
- Mark Hallenbeck, Director of the UW Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC)
- Yinhai Wang, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering / Director of PacTrans and STAR Lab
“This event provided an opportunity for us to reflect on the strong legacy of research in our College of Built Environments while celebrating and supporting current and future scholarship across the college,” expressed Dossick. “This brought our PhD programs and students to the center of our college, who both organized and participated in the events. Congratulations on a wonderful event!”
Read more about Anne Vernez Moudon’s impact on urban design and planning research and practice.
View images from the two-day event below.
