I have worked in the urban sustainable development field since 2000: first, as a practitioner and later as an academic. I hold a PhD in urban sustainability, urban regeneration and public policy (LSE, 2010) and I am Lecturer in Sustainable Development and Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (since 2010). I teach on key theoretical issues surrounding the urban unsustainable development problematic, green futures, governance for urban sustainability; but also teach students how to apply some of these ‘dry’ concepts within large-scale urban areas, via hands-on projects. My dual formation as both an academic and practitioner of sustainable urban development translates into an approach that promotes a constructive dialogue between practice- and theory-based knowledge. I am particularly interested in academic-practice cross-fertilization and dialog, and policy and industry applications of academic research. I have also published extensively in academic and professional journals (please see here http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/people/?school=planning&upi=CTURC04).

My daily job involves transferring knowledge to a highly international student body and communicating knowledge to a wide range of audiences including researchers (I organize conference tracks for the Nordic Environmental and Social Studies and European Network for Housing Research) but also policy makers via policy briefings drawing on my research (see: URBACT Sustainable Regeneration in Urban Areas http://urbact.eu/sites/default/files/04_sustreg-web.pdf, Five Radical Ideas for a Better Planning System http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning/five-radical-ideas, The impact of the global financial and economic crisis on European Cities: Taking stock http://www.ucl.ac.uk/public-policy/public-policy-briefings/Crisis_briefing). I have led and worked within multi-disciplinary and trans-national teams, which involved knowledge transfer and learning between academics, policy-makers and practitioners (see for example http://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/clues) – this have included a range of tools for knowledge exchange such as workshops (see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/clues/events) and conferences (see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/clues/CLUES_Conference), video-conferencing, web forums and on-line surveys (see http://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/clues/local_energy_survey) . I have been involved in a COST Network including partners from 9 European countries (DE, EL, ES, FR, HU, IT, RO, SE, UK) and delivered a thematic deep-dive workshop, The Compact City, at the URBACT City Festival in Riga (6-8 May)