Message from George Baird, Dean:

For the first time in history, roughly 80 per cent of Canada’s population lives in cities or suburbs of major cities.  More than half of all people in the world live in an urban area.  This shifting demographic has created highly concentrated settings for economic growth, consumption, innovation, investment needs, environmental stress and political tension.   As a consequence of this shift, urban issues are a top political priority around the globe, and the demand for scholarly and applied policy-relevant research is being met through the University of Toronto Cities Centre.

This collaborative centre will be led by Civil Engineering Professor Eric Miller, who holds the Bahen-Tanenbaum Professorship, and currently serves as Director of the Urban Transportation Research and Advancement Centre for a 3-year term beginning July 1, 2008.  Professor Miller will succeed Professor Larry Bourne, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography and Program in Planning, who has served as the Cities Centre’s Interim Director since the beginning of 2007 when it was conceived as the University of Toronto’s chief locus of multidisciplinary graduate research on urban issues throughout Canada and the world.

George Baird, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, through which the Cities Centre reports, welcomes Eric Miller’s appointment.  “Eric Miller has been a dedicated supporter of the idea of the Cities Centre from the time of its initial inception, 2 years ago.  He brings a broad, multi-disciplinary sensibility to its prospective research agenda, and will be an effective advocate for that agenda, and for the collaborative teaching program it is expected to develop.”

“We are delighted that Eric was selected to lead the new Cities Centre.  His remarkable expertise in urban research and his involvement around the globe will enable him to lead this multi-disciplinary initiative to produce innovative solutions to meet this challenging societal demand,” said Professor Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.

Professor Miller joined the Department of Civil Engineering in 1979.  He is currently Chair of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research.  He also serves on a number of committees for transportation in Canada and the US.  The City of Toronto uses his “GTAModel” modeling system to forecast regional travel demand in the Greater Toronto Area to support urban transportation policy analysis and decision-making.  He is also the principal investigator of the research team currently developing advanced microsimulation systems for modeling travel and other urban spatial processes.

Professor Eric Miller received his BASc in Engineering Science from the U of T in 1973, his MASc in Aerospace Studies from the U of T in 1975 and his PhD in Civil Engineering Transportation Systems from MIT in 1978.