Congratulations to recent PhD graduate, Shruti Syal, for being awarded the 2019 Association for Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Gill-Chin Lim Award for best dissertation on international planning. Shruti's dissertation is entitled A Socio-Ecological Systems Perspective on Planning for Informality: the case of Delhi's stormwater drain-adjacent settlements. The ACSP award committee "considered the innovativeness of her scholarship and the creativity that she demonstrated in spanning disciplinary fields while taking on the issue of informality that planning struggles with across the global South." They were also "impressed by her methodological rigor and quality of her work, as well as its relevance and the applicability of conclusions." Read more.

Dr. Elizabeth "Libby" Tyler has won the 2020 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. The 2020 Dale Prize theme is #WeAre!: Advancing Gender and Sexuality in Planning Practice. Read more.

Rob Olshansky, Professor Emeritus, will lead an international planning studio course with fieldwork in Puerto Rico in the spring. The goal of the course is to provide support for ongoing post-Maria recovery planning efforts to build more resilient and equitable communities in Puerto Rico. Read more.

The DURP Transportation Planning Group has funding for two new students to work on path-breaking research on active transportation or transport equity. Potential applicants are welcome to contact Dr. Jesus Barajas or Dr. Lindsay Braun before applying. Read more.

The academic programs within the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, including BAUSP, MUP and MSSUM, have been recently classified as an approved field of study within the U.S. government's official STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields list. UIUC urban planning students on F1 visa who finish the program may participate in 12 months of OPT, and may apply for an additional 24 month extension to their OPT period. More information about the STEM OPT extension can be found through the Office of International Student & Scholar Services.