I would like to introduce you to current students pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. The program is one of 39 Ph.D. programs in urban and regional planning in North America, and one of the oldest, founded in 1967. The program's interdisciplinary approach brings together faculty from fields ranging from Architecture to Sociology to study urban problems and interventions.

The purpose of the Ph.D. program is to prepare scholars who can advance the state of research, practice, and education related to the built environment and its relationship to society and nature in metropolitan regions throughout the world. In the strategic plan for 2008-2013, the program defines it success as its ability to provide a rigorous and engaging academic experience and prepare its students to be leaders in the international community of researchers, practitioners, and educators in the field of study.

Perhaps more than ever before, Ph.D. students are looking to make connections with practitioners. One motivation includes the desire to see a stronger two-way bridge between academic research and actual planning practice. Another reason is that an increasing number of Ph.D. students envision a career in the professional world, rather than in academia, upon graduation.

To better facilitate connections between the academic and professional world of planning, UW doctoral students have initiated a new relationship with the Department of Urban Planning Professionals Council. We hope that by building more connections, we will open doors to new opportunities for collaborative research projects. This could include engaging APA Washington Chapter professionals as direct research contributors, reviewers of work-in-progress, or even as dissertation advisers. Working collaboratively may also uncover new project funding sources.

We invite you visit http://depts.washington.edu/urbdpphd/students.shtml so that you can meet us, and see for yourself the truly diverse range of interests that we're following; from urban ecology and land cover, to travel behavior, to regional food systems planning, just name a few such topics. Here is a brief sample of what you'll find on our web page:

Andy Krause

Andy Krause. Andy's research interests include land value modeling, growth controls, urban economics, real estate markets, and geospatial analysis. He has recently completed papers on "An Iterative Approach to Minimizing Valuation Errors using an Automated Comparable Sales Model" and "The Impact of Transit Corridors on Residential Property Values."

Karen Dyson

Karen Dyson. Karen focuses on urban ecology, the value of habitat in urban areas, and improving habitat value in human dominated landscapes. Her dissertation research examines how the management of private land impacts biodiversity.

Jason Scully. His research interests include pedestrian behavior, walkable places, and urban form. Jason works in the Urban Form Lab, which undertakes projects such as the Walking and Bike-able Communities Project. This project sought to establish a gold standard for developing retrospective audit instruments of walking-supportive residential environments.

Megan Horst

Megan Horst. Finally, as the author of this article, I'd like to briefly introduce myself. As a second- year Ph.D. student, my interests focus on community and regional food systems planning and policy-making, social movements and networks, and organizational capacity for policy change.

You are invited to contact us, and other PhD students with relevant research interests, directly to discuss ideas about collaboration. Names and email addressed for all current student are available on the webpage. You are also invited to contact me directly (horstm@uw.edu) so that I may serve as a clearinghouse to connect practitioners and Ph.D. students with similar interests.

Many potential benefits to collaboration exist, including the pooling of resources, the combining of expertise, and the sharing of different backgrounds and viewpoints. By engaging more collaboratively, we may be able to reach a broader audience of practicing planners and academics with grounded, useful, and well-researched information.