Chris Zegras

Chris Zegras is Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning in the Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where he teaches integrated land use-transportation planning, transportation finance, and field-based/client-based workshops. He has co-taught urban design and planning studios in Beijing, Boston, Cartagena (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico), Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile. He is the Lead Principal Investigator for the Future Urban Mobility research group, sponsored by the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and is MIT Lead of Transportation Systems under the MIT Portugal Program. His research spans three inter-related areas critical to tackling metropolitan mobility challenges: (1) Human Behavior: understanding the dynamic relationships between human behavior and the built, social, and natural environments; (2) Digitalization: leveraging new technologies to deepen our understanding of relevant dynamics, offer new ways to interact with individuals, and enhance people's engagement in mobility-related data collection and planning processes; and, (3) Strategic Planning: devising new techniques for supporting mobility planning, aiming to understand how they can ultimately improve the design, finance, and implementation of innovative mobility policies and interventions. He has consulted widely for a diverse range of organizations, including the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian, German, US, and Peruvian Governments, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He serves on the Boston BRT Study Group and the MIT Transportation and Parking Committee. Prior to becoming a Professor, he worked for the International Institute for Energy Conservation in Washington, DC and Santiago de Chile and for MIT's Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Zegras holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Tufts University, a Master in City Planning and a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, also from MIT.