We are very proud to announce our Keynote speakers, exceptional scholars and professionals in several of IAPS' primary areas of work.
We are sure participants will find their work important, exciting and stimulating.
Please watch this space because there is more great news to come!
Nabeel Hamdi qualified as an architect at the Architectural Association in London in 1968. He worked for the Greater London Council between 1969 and 1978, where his award winning housing projects established his reputation in participatory design and planning. From 1981 – 1990 he was Assistant then Associate Professor of Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was later awarded a Ford International Career Development Professorship.
In 1997 Nabeel won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning. He founded the Masters Course in Development Practice at Oxford Brookes University in 1992 which was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2001. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Afirca in 2008. He was ARUP Fellow at the University of Cape Town and Adjunct Professor at the National University of Technology, Trondheim, Norway. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes University and Teaching Fellow at the Decelopment Planning Unit, University College London.
Nabeel has consulted on participatory action planning and upgrading of slums n cites to all major development agencies, and to charities and NGO’s worldwide. He is the author of The Placemakers Guide to Building Community, Small Change, Housing Without Houses, co-author of Making Micro Plans and Action Planning for Cities, and editor of the collected volumes Educating for Real and Urban Futures.
The Environment of Childhood Poverty - Download abstract
Gary W. Evans is Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology at Cornell University. Focus of his studies is how the physical environment effects human health and well being among children. His specific areas of expertise include childhood poverty, environmental stress and children’s environments.
Prof Evans is member of the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academy of Sciences. The board makes policy recommendations related to health and development for children, youth, and families.
He holds a Ph.D in environmental psychology with postdoctoral training in psyconeuroendocrinology and in human development.
Prof Evans is the author of more than 300 scholarly articles and book chapters and five books. 
Human Settlements as Natural Habitats: A Framework for Design & Research- Download abstract
Ian has a background in Architecture and Property Development in the UK, Middle East and Netherlands. He has taught, researched and carried out consultancy work with the Joint Centre for Urban Design, at what is now Oxford Brookes University, since 1975; and is currently the Joint Centre’s Emeritus Professor of Urban Design.
He has a broad interest in design education, and has been external examiner for a wide range of courses in Urban Design, Urban Regeneration, Cultural Studies and Public Art. He has made keynote presentations on urban design and design education topics, at conferences in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Russian Federation. In recent years, he has carried out exploratory consultancy work from Tatarstan to the Cayman Islands.
He has written many book chapters and journal articles, was lead author of Responsive Environments (1985, since translated into many languages), author of Urban Transformations (1999) and, with Georgia Butina Watson, of Identity by Design (2007). He is currently leading a team producing a new settlement-design manual entitled EcoResponsive Environments, which should just make it to the bookshops by the time of the IAPS conference, and is writing The Art of EcoDesign with Becky Kiddle.