Biography

Matthew Gandy was born in Islington, North London. In 1988 he was awarded a BA in Geography from the University of Cambridge (first, with distinction) and in 1992 he completed his PhD at the London School of Economics. From 1992 to 1997 he was a lecturer in the School of European Studies at the University of Sussex.  He joined the Department of Geography at UCL in 1997 and became full professor in 2007.  He has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York;  the University of California, Los Angeles; Newcastle University; and the Humboldt University, Berlin.  He is also an associate member of faculty at the London Consortium.

His book Concrete and clay: reworking nature in New York City (MIT Press, 2002) was co-winner of the 2003 Spiro Kostof award for the book within the previous two years “that has made the greatest contribution to our understanding of urbanism and its relationship with architecture.” He is currently writing a book on cultural histories of urban infrastructure.

He was Director of the UCL Urban Laboratory (2005-11) and a co-founder of the Urban Salon.  He is a member of the Peer Review College for the Arts and Humanities Research Council.  Matthew is also actively involved in local issues in Hackney, east London, and is a member of Hackney Biodiversity Partnership and Hackney Environment Network.  You can find more details about his current projects and read his blog Cosmopolis at http://www.matthewgandy.org