Yasser Elsheshtawy is Associate Professor at the United Arab Emirates University, Department of Architectural Engineering. His research is focused on urbanization in developing societies, informal urbanism and environment-behavior studies, with a particular focus on Middle Eastern cities. He authored and edited a series of books which include “Dubai: Behind an Urban Spectacle” (2010), “The Evolving Arab city” (2008), and “Planning Middle Eastern Cities” (2004, 2009) – all published by Routledge/London. In addition he authored more than 70 publications in leading international journals and conferences. He has been invited to present his work at numerous international institutions such as Harvard School of Design, the ETH/Zurich, the Louvre Auditorium/Paris and the Canadian Centre for Architecture/Montreal. He was also involved as a consultant with the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission of Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Washington, DC. Follow his progress.