Meet Our Experts

Dean’s Office

Photo of Chanam Lee

Chanam Lee

Professor, Executive Associate Dean

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Dean’s Office

Expert Area: Built Environment and Physical Activity; Healthy Living/Communities by Design

Contact:  979-845-7056; chanam@tamu.edu

Ivy Hu

Ivy Hu

Incoming Dean of the College of Architecture

Dean’s Office

Expert Area: Intersection of Transportation and Land Use; Planning Policy;

Patrick Suermann

Patrick Suermann 

Professor, Interim Dean

College of Architecture; Department of Construction Science 

Expert Area: Military Construction; Lunar Construction; Expeditionary Construction

Contact: 719-339-9611, suermann@tamu.edu

Architecture

Ahmed K. Ali

Ahmed K. Ali

Associate Professor; Director Resource-Based Design Research Lab (RBDR/Lab)

Department of Architecture

Expert Area: Design in Circular Economy, Waste & Industrial Symbiosis, Building Materials & Assemblies

Contact: 540-449-7030,  ahali@tamu.edu 

Headshot of Juan Carlos Baltazar

Juan-Carlos Baltazar 

Professor, Director, Building Performance Assessment Center (BPAC), Associate Director, TEES-Energy Systems Laboratory

Department of Architecture

Expert Area: Renewable Energy Systems; Energy Use Efficiency 

Contact:  979-845-5041; jcbaltazar@tamu.edu

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Zhipeng Lu

Assistant Professor, Associate Director, Center for Health Systems & Design

Department of Architecture; Center for Health Systems & Design

Expert Area: Health Facility Design for Older Adults; Telemedicine for Behavioral Health

Contact:  979-845-6183; luzhipeng@tamu.edu

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James Tate

Assistant Professor

Department of Architecture; Center for Health Systems & Design; Center for Housing and Urban Development

Expert Area: Wildfire Mitigation; Recovery And Community Planning

Contact: jtate@arch.tamu.edu

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Wei Yan

Professor

Department of Architecture; CRS Center

Expert Area: Computational Methods in Architecture, Augmented Reality, AI, Building Information Modeling, Parametric Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization

Contact:  wyan@tamu.edu; 979-574-8305

Jorge Vanegas

Jorge Vanegas

Dean Emeritus; Director of the Institute for Sustainable Communities; Professor 

Department of Architecture

Expert Area: Built Environment; Sustainability with a Focus on Livable, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities enabled by Intelligent Facilities and Infrastructure

Contact: (979) 204-2577; jvanegas@tamu.edu

Construction Science

Photo of Manish Dixit

Manish Dixit

Associate Professor

Department of Construction Science

Expert Area: Energy and Building Information Modeling; Facility Performance Assessment

Contact:  979-458-9375; mdixit@tamu.edu

Photo of Chukwuma Nnaji

Chuma Nnaji

Associate Professor, Cecil O. Windsor Jr. ’66 Endowed Professor

Department of Construction Science

Expert Area: Construction Safety; Construction Automation; Sustainable Construction

Contact:  979-845-7075; cnnaji@tamu.edu

Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

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Sherry Bame

Professor Emerita; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center; Center for Health Systems & Design

Expert Area: Health Systems Planning and Policy; Environmental Health; Health-Related Disaster Planning; Hurricane; Community Planning; 

Contact: 979-845-8407, sbame@tamu.edu

Photo of Robert Brown

Robert Brown

Professor

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

Expert Area: Microclimate Design; Thermal Comfort and Heat Health 

Contact: robert.brown@tamu.edu

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Ivis Garcia

Associate Professor; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center; Center for Housing & Urban Development

Expert Area (Tags): Housing; Community Development; Planning in/with Minority and Low-Income Communities;  Equity and Community Planning for Disaster Recovery; Recovery And Public Health; Hurricane; Community Planning; 

Contact: ivis.garcia@tamu.edu  

Photo of Sungmin Lee

Sungmin Lee

Assistant Professor

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning; Center for Health Systems & Design

Expert Area: Urban Trees in Crime Prevention; Built Environment

Contact: sungminlee@tamu.edu; 979-587-4159

Photo of Dongying Li

Dongying Li 

Associate Professor

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Center for Health Systems & Design

Expert Area: Nature and Mental Health; Environmental Psychology; Urban Informatics 

Contact:  979-862-1211; dli@arch.tamu.edu

Photo of Jaimie Hicks Masterson

Jaimie Hicks Masterson

Director, Texas Target Communities; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center

Expert Area: Community Resilience And Sustainable Development; Hurricane

Contact: jaimiehm06@tamu.edu

Photo of Michelle Annette Meyer

Michelle Meyer

Associate Professor, Director, Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

Expert Area: Recovery And Public Health; Wildfire Mitigation, Recovery And Community Planning; Hurricane

Contact: mmeyer@arch.tamu.edu

Newman galen

Galen Newman

Professor; Department Head; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Department; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center

Expert Area: Urban Regeneration, Land Use Science, Spatial Analytics, Flood Resilience and Community/Urban Scaled Design; Community Resilience and Sustainable Development; Wildfire Mitigation, Recovery And Community Planning; Hurricane; Urban Regeneration

Contact: gnewman@arch.tamu.edu

Photo of Walter Gillis Peacock

Walter Gillis Peacock

Professor; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; U. S. Census Bureau; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center; Texas Target Communities; Center for Housing and Community Development; Texas Research Data Center (TXRDC)

Expert Area: Evacuation And Transportation; Wildfire Mitigation, Recovery And Community Planning; Hurricane; Evacuation; Restoration and Long-Term Recovery from Disasters; Disaster Mitigation and Resilience. 

Contact: 979-845-7835, peacock@tamu.edu

Sanchez tom

Tom Sanchez

Professor

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning

Expert Area: Urban Planning Methods and Technologies; AI in Planning

Contact: twsanchez@tamu.edu

Photo of Douglas Wunneburger

Doug Wunneburger

Instructional Professor; Faculty Fellow, 

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center 

Expert Area: Evacuation And Transportation; Hurricane; 

Contact: dwunneburger@arch.tamu.edu

Siyu Yu

Siyu Yu

Assistant Professor; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center

Expert Area: Community Resilience And Sustainable Development; Wildfire Mitigation, Recovery And Community Planning; Hurricane;  Built Environment, Disaster Relief, Policy, Community Resilience, Climate Adaptation

Contact:  979-676-7689; syu@arch.tamu.edu

Photo of Shannon S. Van Zandt, AICP

Shannon Van Zandt

Professor; Faculty Fellow

Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning; Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center; Center for Housing and Urban Development; Texas Target Communities

Expert Area: Community Resilience and Hazards Mitigation; Disaster Recovery; Social Vulnerability; Low-Income Housing; Climate Adaptation (buyouts); Recovery And Public Health; Hurricane

Contact: 979-458-1233, svanzandt@tamu.edu