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Ibrahim Jammal, global planner
Ibrahim M. Jammal, associate professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Environmental Design and Planning in the School of Architecture and Planning, and a major force behind the study of globalization in the field of planning, died Tuesday in the Oakwood Health Care Center, Amherst, after a long illness. He was 77.
"Jammal was the inspiration behind the environmental design and the urban and regional planning programs at UB and nurtured them over many years with authority and compassion," said Brian Carter, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning.
"He was a central figure in our school," Carter said, "and played a major role in the advancement of professional education in the field. In addition, his global perspective ensured that our program had a truly international outlook—one that continues to energize the work of our students and research of the faculty today."
A member of the UB faculty from 1969 until his retirement in 1999, Jammal was an author, teacher and speaker in the field of complex problem-solving in planning and design, the application of futures studies and forecasting methods to planning and policy, long-range planning, planning in developing countries, and negotiation and conflict resolution.
"It is widely recognized within the urban and regional planning academic community that Ibrahim Jammal was the major force behind the study of globalization within the field of planning," noted Niraj Verma, chair of the school's Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
"In fact," Verma said "the Global Planning Education Interest Group, which today counts a large and distinguished group of academic members, was started pursuant to a meeting of nationally prominent academics that organized in Buffalo by Professor Jammal."
In recent years, Jammal participated in The Millennium Project, commissioned in 2002 by the United Nations as a global participatory think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers.
Jammal was born in 1930 in Cairo, Egypt, of Lebanese descent and earned a bachelor's degree from Cairo University before receiving both master's and doctoral degrees in planning and architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. He also earned certification by the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Washington in computer application to planning analysis.
He joined the faculty of the UB School of Architecture and Planning in 1969 and from 1970-79 served as chair of the Department of Environmental Design and Planning, where he initiated the undergraduate program in 1970 and the graduate program in urban planning in 1976. At that time, they were the only degree-granting programs of their kind in the SUNY system. In 1979, he was appointed director of the school's program in comparative studies in developing planning education.
Jammal was an Arab speaker and Francophone, and served as president of Buffalo's French Cultural Center. In 1992, he was elected vice president for academics for the Buffalo Center Chapter of United University Professions, the union representing SUNY faculty and professional staff.
His consultant work in urban planning took him from Buffalo, Cheektowaga and Genesee County to Washington D.C., Washington state, Jordan, Zaire, Egypt and Bahrain, where in 1985 he was involved in the planning and design of the new island town of Fasht Al Adham.
In 2001, Jammal and his wife established the Ibrahim Jammal Fellowship Grant Program in the School of Architecture and Planning to permit the school's American and foreign students to broaden their vision beyond the specific cultures of their mother countries.
In spring, 2007, the school's inaugural Ibrahim Jammal Lecture was delivered by author Saskia Sassen distinguished economist, urban sociologist and expert on the effects of globalization.
An avid reader, photographer and gardener, Jammal was known as well for his culinary skills, which he frequently demonstrated to delighted guests by preparing exotic dishes he had encountered during his extensive travels.
A mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Rose of Lima Church, Parkside and Parker avenues, Buffalo.