As part of the College of Architecture’s new strategic emphasis on interdisciplinarity, Steven French will support and lead research activities as the College’s first-ever Associate Dean for Research. In this capacity he will work to strengthen research support infrastructure within the College and interdisciplinary ties both within the College and across the Institute.

Alan Balfour, dean of the College of Architecture said, “Our aim is to commit to strategic pursuit of unprecedented research opportunities linking design with cutting edge science and engineering research--unique strengths present in the College that are at the forefront of the research agendas of the nation and the Institute.”

“The opportunities in green buildings, alternative energy, health care, digital design and information technologies have never been greater,” said French. “These topics that are central to the College of Architecture are currently at the forefront of the research agenda of the nation and the Institute.”

French joined Georgia Tech as Director of the City Planning Program in 1992 and has directed the Center for Geographic Information Systems since 1996. His teaching and research focus on land use planning, GIS applications and natural hazard risk assessment. Over the past twenty-five years, French has been the principal investigator or co- principal investigator on 70 research projects, many of them funded by National Science Foundation. For the past five years he served as the Social Science Research Thrust Leader for the Mid-America Earthquake Center. He has direct experience with the creation and motivation of interdisciplinary teams that include scientists, social scientists, engineers, computer scientists, architects and urban planners. This experience provides a strong foundation from which to fashion interdisciplinary research both within the College of Architecture and with the rest of the university.

He is the co-author of a recent article in the Journal of the American Planning Association on the future of GIS in planning and co-edited Risk Assessment, Modeling and Decision Support (Springer, 2008). He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners. French holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During the 1987-88 academic year, Dr. French served as the Visiting Professor of Resources Planning in the Civil Engineering Department at Stanford University.