A prestigious appointment has been made within the School of Geosciences at the University of Aberdeen.
Professor William J V Neill has been appointed Chair in Spatial Planning, as part of the institution's highly successful Sixth Century recruitment campaign.
Prior to joining Aberdeen, Professor Neill held a Readership and the post of Director of Postgraduate Planning Studies at Queen's University, Belfast. He qualified as an urban planner at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and worked for the State of Michigan in policy work relating to metropolitan Detroit for many years.
After obtaining a PhD from the University of Nottingham, he took on a lecturing post at the University of Manchester before returning to his native city of Belfast.
His research interests lie with the spatiality of identity in cities, including the city of Belfast. He is presently engaged with exploring how environmental citizenship can help bridge ethnic divides in a range of European cities. He is author of the book Urban Planning and Cultural Identity (Routledge, 2004) and most recently an edited volume entitled Migration and Cultural Inclusion in the European City (with Hanns-Uve Schwedler, Director of the European Academy of the Urban Environment), published by Palgrave in 2007.
Professor Neill has been enjoying his first month at the University. Speaking after his appointment, he said: "I am excited to have this new opportunity to develop my interests in spatial planning. Roots in place are still important in our globalizing world and place identity which can accommodate cultural difference is something worth striving for. I was delighted to accept the appointment to join the School of Geosciences and I am enjoying being part of an interdisciplinary atmosphere with a focus on the natural and built environment. An important part of my job will be helping to develop and realign with Geosciences the well established RTPI and RICS accredited programmes in the School while keeping fruitful links to the property expertise within the Aberdeen Business School.
Professor David Macdonald, Head of the School of Geosciences, has welcomed the new appointment. He said: "The employment of Professor Neill strengthens the University of Aberdeen's existing research into spatial planning. This gives us the opportunity to go out into schools and recruit more students onto our exciting degrees; to develop new advanced programmes; and to build international research links at the interface between Planning and Geography.
"I am very grateful that the University's Sixth Century campaign has made such an innovative appointment possible."