Thanos Vlastos

Professor Thanos Vlatos, of National Technical University in Athens, Greece, will speak on "“Towards the Compact City. From the Suburbs to the Center”.  This lecture is sponsored by the Onassis Foundation.

Thanos Vlastos is Professor of Urban & Transport Planning at National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School of Surveying Enginnering, Department of Geography and Regional Planning. He also teaches at School of Architecture, NTUA and the Hellenic Open University. He is Architect (NTUA, 1977) and Civil Engineer (Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics, Paris- 1979) with post-graduate studies on Transport Planning (Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris -1980) and Ph.D. on the Architecture of Urban Mobility (State University of Liège, Belgium 1983) with fellowships from France, Belgium and University of Liège (1977-1983). He has extensive experience in sustainable mobility issues (urban & transport planning integration, pedestrian and cycle friendly design), focusing through his research and published work in journals and conferences on the human dimension of urban and transport planning. He has also represented Greece in international organizations, committees and networks of cities such as OECD, Eurocities, Car Free Cities, etc. In his professional experience are included dozens of projects for local authorities in Greece and eight years in public administration (R.A.T.P. – Paris, ministry of Public Works and Organisation of Planning and Environmental Protection of Athens).

In 2000, he founded the Sustainable Mobility Unit (SMU) NTUA, aiming to investigate, plan and promote project and policies in the field of sustainable mobility (cycling, walking, public transport). Today, after 11 years, SMU has acquired long and significant experience in research and applications for the promotion of alternative means (with emphasis on cycling), becoming the leading research unit of this sector in Greece. The research projects and studies that members of SMU (11 young researchers -under 35- from different scientific fields: Transportation Planners, Urban Planners, Surveying Engineers, Civil Engineers, Geographers, Economists and Psychologists) have conducted gave solutions on cycling integration in the Greek city, suggested types of infrastructure and also took responsibility for the awareness raising of the Greek society through publications, lectures and debates in local communities.