Dr. Stephan Schmidt

Biography

Stephan Schmidt is an Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Regional Planning Program at Cornell University. He specializes in community-based planning, landscape architecture, and urban development, focusing on sustainability and planning history. He employs geographic information systems in his courses and is particularly interested in how policy environments and institutional processes shape spatial patterns to promote equitable outcomes. His academic background includes a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in urban planning from Rutgers University. Schmidt conducts research on urban morphology in rapidly growing cities in sub-Saharan Africa, exploring how spatial arrangements influence sustainable urban outcomes. He investigates the relationship between land use and environmental factors such as air quality and carbon emissions. His recent projects include examining regional polycentricity and its implications for metropolitan development, as well as conducting internationally comparative analyses to understand how different planning institutions generate sustainable spatial patterns.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards