Spatial planner to head urban planning and policy at UIC
Zorica Nedović-Budić, UIC professor and head of urban planning and policy. Photo: Jenny Fontaine
Zorica Nedović-Budić, an expert in spatial planning and technologies, is the new head of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her appointment became effective Jan. 1.
Nedović-Budić’s research interests involve the implementation of geographic information systems in local government and urban planning; development of spatial data infrastructures; and evaluation of those systems and infrastructures on local planning processes and decisions.
“Professor Nedović-Budić is an internationally acclaimed scholar who has been at the forefront of employing spatial technologies to advance the urban planning profession,” says Michael Pagano, dean of the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. “With her arrival, UIC’s department of urban planning and policy is poised to make great strides in the area of geo-spatial applications.”
Nedović-Budić comes to UIC from University College Dublin, where she was professor and chair of spatial planning and technology in the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy.
She looks forward to contributing to the continued success and growth of the urban planning and policy department at UIC.
“I am honored to join the urban planning and policy department faculty, which is held in high regard among planning scholars and practitioners, both nationally and internationally,” she said. “The department is also an important participant and stakeholder in the context of Chicago’s urban environment and communities and its students derive great benefits from being exposed to this magnificent planning laboratory.”
The focus of her planning studies is in comparative urban development and planning practice in post-communist and transitional societies; context-sensitive planning systems; international diffusion of planning ideas and methods; and land-use regulation and management of information and communication technologies.
She has published over 50 book chapters and articles in geo-spatial technologies, urban planning and institutions, and she has co-edited three books.
Her research has been supported through funding from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, R.W. Johnson Foundation, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, European Commission’s Framework 7 Programme funds, and European Spatial Planning Observation Network.
She holds editorial board member posts with the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association Journal, International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructure, and the Journal of Urban Management and Territorium. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Urban Development and Planning.
Nedović-Budić has served on the board of directors of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, and as the book reviews co-editor for the Journal of the American Planning Association. She is currently an executive committee member for the Association of European Schools of Planning.
Prior to joining the University College Dublin, she held faculty appointments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Tech.
Nedović-Budić earned a Ph.D in geographic information systems from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in spatial planning from the University of Belgrade.
