Built Infrastructure @MIT

Mr. David Martin joined Corporate Relations on August 15, 2018 as Program Director for the ILP. Martin comes to OCR with deep and broad knowledge and expertise in program management, innovation, commercial and government contracting, and strategic planning. In his most recent position at Altran (Burlington, MA) as the VP Programs, Dave had many major accomplishments including leading an innovation team to develop new technology in the beverage-filling industry, and managing client-facing relations supporting sales and execution of projects. Before that, he was at Windmill International as VP, Product Development, R&D. There he spearheaded the move into new markets for an innovative satellite communications product including through the SBIR program where he secured funding and sponsorship. Martin also leveraged other government programs collaborating with the DoD and congressional contacts. He began his career in the US Air Force as an Active Duty Captain and served for 10 years as an Acquisition Manager, Scientist, Test Director, and finally as Executive Officer in the Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications Systems in the Pentagon. Martin also served in the US Air Force Reserves before joining Windmill.
 
Mr. Martin earned his B.S., Physics from MIT, and his M.S., Systems Management from the University of Denver. He also earned a Certificate in Information Systems at the University of Denver.

Zegras is Professor of Transportation and Urban Planning in the Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, where he teaches integrated land use-transportation planning, transportation finance, and field-based/client-based workshops. He has co-taught urban design and planning studios in Beijing, Boston, Cartagena (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico), Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile. He is the Lead Principal Investigator for the Future Urban Mobility research group, sponsored by the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, and is MIT Lead of Transportation Systems under the MIT Portugal Program.

His research spans three inter-related areas critical to tackling metropolitan mobility challenges:
(1) Human Behavior: understanding the dynamic relationships between human behavior and the built, social, and natural environments;
(2) Digitalization: leveraging new technologies to deepen our understanding of relevant dynamics, offer new ways to interact with individuals, and enhance people’s engagement in mobility-related data collection and planning processes; and,
(3) Strategic Planning: devising new techniques for supporting mobility planning, aiming to understand how they can ultimately improve the design, finance, and implementation of innovative mobility policies and interventions.

He has consulted widely for a diverse range of organizations, including the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Canadian, German, US, and Peruvian Governments, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He serves on the Boston BRT Study Group and the MIT Transportation and Parking Committee. Prior to becoming a Professor, he worked for the International Institute for Energy Conservation in Washington, DC and Santiago de Chile and for MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Zegras holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Tufts University, a Master in City Planning and a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT and a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, also from MIT.

Janelle Knox-Hayes is the Lister Brothers Associate Professor of Economic Geography and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She holds a visiting research fellowship at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. Her research focuses on the ways in which social and environmental systems are governed under changing temporal and spatial scales as a consequence of globalization. She has studied the political and economic interface of financial markets and environmental systems and how individuals and organizations plan and make decisions under conditions of socio-economic uncertainty. Her latest project examines how social values shape sustainable development. Janelle has been the recipient of an SSRC Abe Fellowship for study of environmental finance in the Asia-Pacific and a Fulbright Fellowship for study of sustainable decision-making in Iceland. Janelle is the author of a number of peer-reviewed works in prestigious journals and presses. She serves as an editor of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society.

Prior to joining DUSP, Janelle was an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. She completed her BA (Summa Cum Laude) in International Affairs, Ecology, and Japanese Language and Civilizations from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2004 and her MSc (with Distinction) and DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2006 and 2009 respectively. Before starting graduate school, Janelle worked as an energy analyst for the United States Government Accountability Office. While in graduate school, she also worked as an energy analyst for New Energy Finance.

Cities connect to their environment through infrastructure, comprised of complex and interconnected physical, technological, and social systems. David's research and teaching focus on how to demonstrate new opportunities for planners and policymakers to shape this relationship within these systems using technology, data, and analysis. Much of his work seeks to assist a wide range of actors -- local policymakers, planners, advocates, as well as academics -- directly with design, planning, policymaking, and policy implementation.

His publications can be found on his Google Scholar profile and the MIT D-space repository, both linked at right. Previous projects (and funders) include:

• the effectiveness of benchmarking and disclosure as information policies to reduce the energy consumption of buildings (U.S. Department of Energy); 
• implementation of green and smart infrastructure for stormwater management (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. National Science Foundation); and 
• adoption of solar microgrids, lighting, and control technologies in India, Brazil, and Kenya (MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, Fulbright NEXUS program). 

David is currently working on a book contracted with the University of Chicago Press on alternative governance of the electric grid, due in 2021. Current areas of work and research collaboration include:

• opportunities for cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through comprehensive policies in particular sectors; 
• local, regional, and federal governance of distributed energy resources and energy transitions; 
• optimal experimental design for air pollution monitoring networks; and 
• air quality sensing within energy-efficient and electrified buildings, a key pathway to net-zero carbon emissions. 

At MIT, David teaches classes on urban technology (11.007), research methods (11.800), and infrastructure (11.381). David is also chair of the DUSP urban science major (11-6); course 11 advisor for the Energy Studies Minor, offered by the MIT Energy Initiative; and is a climate coordinator for the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. David is also a faculty member of the MIT Energy Initiative, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, the Council for the Uncertain Human Future, the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium, the Roosevelt Project of the MIT Center for Economic and Environmental Policy, and the MIT Committee on Undergraduate Performance.

David taught previously at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, and worked in structural engineering, real estate finance, and as a policy analyst in the city governments of New York and Seattle. He holds a B.S. from Yale University in physics; a M.S. from Cornell University in applied and engineering physics; a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in city design and social science; and from the University of Washington in Seattle, a Ph.D. in urban design and planning and a certificate in social science and statistics.