There’s a new chair in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning.

Daniel B. Hess, a professor of urban planning and an award-winning scholar who studies the socioeconomic dynamics of housing, transportation and land use, began his three-year tenure as chair on Jan. 1.

Hess succeeds Ernest Sternberg, a nearly 30-year member of the urban planning faculty, who served as department chair for the past six years. “It’s been a privilege being chair, not least because I myself have learned and matured from the experience,” says Sternberg, who also served as chair from 2000-02. “The work has been inspired by Dean Shibley’s visionary leadership of the school, our faculty’s fervent pursuit of excellence in teaching and research, and a renewed passion in our communities for all things cities.”

A member of the faculty since 2002 and former associate chair of the department, Hess began his tenure as chair just as he concluded a two-year research fellowship in Estonia at the University of Tartu.

The transition takes place amidst a period of tremendous growth for the program, fueled by its city-as-laboratory engagement with Buffalo, and new transdisciplinary research initiatives that address challenges as diverse as climate change and social justice while engaging a range of disciplines, including architecture, public health, law and engineering.

Since 2012, the department has launched a doctorate in urban planning, a combined master of urban planning/master of public health degree, and graduate offerings in historic preservation. In 2015, led by the efforts of Sternberg, the school established the SUNY system’s only master’s degree in real estate development. The curriculum combines urban planning, architecture, economic development, finance and law.

Hess says he hopes to build on this trajectory toward an elevated national profile. “I am honored to assume this important leadership role and to advance our important educational and research missions. Our key aims — to improve urban planning practice, to enhance city functions and urban life, and to ensure fundamental fairness and equity for all — address critical challenges facing our communities.”

Adds Dean Robert G. Shibley: “Dan’s international research networks and deep connections to practice will reinforce our award-winning studio curriculum and nationally ranked research enterprise. I am inspired as well by Dan’s plans for strengthening our undergraduate environmental design program.”

The recipient of UB’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Hess has taught core courses in the environmental design bachelor’s degree program, directed award-winning studios in the master of urban planning program, and led eight study abroad courses in England, Estonia, Latvia and Russia.

His research on housing and transportation spans urban planning history, post-socialist urban space, land use planning, and disaster preparedness and response planning for extreme events. Hess’ most recent research in Estonia through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship took him across the Baltic states to explore the Soviet-era housing complexes that still dominate the urban landscapes of Eastern Europe. While there, he served as director of the Center for Migration and Urban Studies at the University of Tartu.

Hess says research — and student engagement in research — is central to the program’s success. “Research is paramount to what we do in the department. We cannot excel in our research endeavors without the involvement of students,” he says.

In addition to its studio-based curriculum and intensive community engagement, UB’s urban and regional planning program is distinguished by its research enterprise. The department’s faculty consistently rank at the top of urban planning programs in the Association of American Universities (AAU) for research funding and publications. The program receives national and international funding for its research on food systems planning and public health, extreme weather and cities, planning for distressed urban neighborhoods, and urban policy for transitioning cities.

A former Fulbright scholar, Hess has also been recognized as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow and an Eisenhower fellow with the U.S. Department of Transportation. He has authored more than 50 scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals and 10 book chapters. He is co-editor of the forthcoming Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation, and Policy Challenges (Springer Publishing International) and will assume the role of co-editor of Town Planning Review, one of the oldest scholarly journals in urban planning.

Hess is a 1997 graduate of UB’s MUP program. He earned his PhD in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds a bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Clarkson University.