Past Member

Dimitris Papanikolaou

Former Alumnus, City Science
  • City Science

MS 2011
Assistant Professor, in Architecture and Department of Software Information Systems (joint appointment), University of North Carolina Charlotte

Dimitris Papanikolaou is an urban scientist, architect, and engineer, and a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard GSD. He holds a Doctor of Design from Harvard GSD, an MSc from MIT Media Lab, an SMArchS from MIT SAP, and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from NTUA. Starting Fall 2017, he will be a tenure track Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, with a joint appointment between the School of Architecture and the Department of Software and Information Systems.

Dimitris' research combines data, complex systems modeling, and information technology, to analyze and design, systems and technologies for intelligent urban infrastructure and mobility systems. He has previously worked at Microsoft Research developing novel applications of the Internet of Things and at the MIT Media Lab co-developing Mobility on Demand, an intelligent sharing system of electric foldable cars named by TIME magazine as the best automotive invention of 2007. His research has been published in 15 peer-reviewed conferences and 7 books and journals, and has received distinctions including the Buckminster Fuller Challenge; the Harvard Deans’ Design Challenge; the MIT Transportation Showcase award in Economics, Finance, Policy and Land Use; the Harvard Fellowship on Energy and Environment; the Harvard Meyer Transportation Research award; and a Fulbright Fellowship for graduate studies at MIT.

Expand your network - get as many summer research internships as you can. Decide as early as possible whether you want to stay in academia, go to industry, or start your own practice - these are quite different paths. Learn to think across disciplines and with no biases: when others see walls you should try to see bridges.