Joseph Ferreira, Head and Professor of Urban Planning and Operations Research, UIS, MIT, President of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA)

Joseph Ferreira is Professor of Urban Planning and Operations Research and Head of Urban Information Systems in MIT's Urban Studies and Planning Department. His undergraduate and PhD degrees are also from MIT (in electrical engineering and operations research). Dr. Ferreira teaches analytical methods and computer-based modeling for planning and urban management including courses involving extensive use of geographic information systems (GIS) and database management. His research interests involve the use of GIS and interactive spatial analysis tools to model land use and transportation planning, build sustainable information infrastructures for supporting urban and regional planning, and develop decision support systems for assessing and managing risk. Prof. Ferreira has published widely and is active in a number of professional organizations concerned with GIS and urban planning uses of computing. He is a past-president of URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) and has been principal investigator of numerous research projects involving interoperable geospatial services, metropolitan information infrastructure, and collaborative planning systems.