Ibrahim Jammal
Ibrahim “Himi” Jammal, a native of Egypt, traveled the world as a leader in global planning studies. Pictured above with his wife, Viviane.
As founder of the planning department, professor and world-renowned scholar of futures studies and international
planning, Ibrahim “Himi” Jammal left an indelible mark on the field of planning during his more than 30-year career with
the School of Architecture and Planning.
One of the school’s first faculty members, Jammal joined the then School of Environmental Design in 1969 to build its planning department. He would go on to design both the undergraduate environmental design and master in urban planning programs, both rooted in systems thinking and complex problem-solving, a new paradigm for design education at that time.
Perhaps one of his greatest contributions was the global perspective he brought to the program. “He was ahead of his time,” says Alfred Price, professor of urban and regional planning and associate dean of the school from 1977-1982, during Jammal’s time as chair of the planning department. “Himi was talking about global issues and global studies long before
people started talking about the phenomenon of globalization.”
Himi’s commitment to global thinking in planning continued even after his retirement. In 2001, he and his wife, Viviane, established the Ibrahim and Viviane Jammal Fellowship to support scholarship, student research and public symposia on globalization, international planning and futures studies.
Today the fund fosters global dialogue and leadership in planning through the annual Jammal Lecture and a scholarship awarded every year to an international graduate student in planning. Since 2001, more than 10 students from around the world — including Iran, India, China and Canada — have received the Jammal scholarship in recognition of their academic achievement and potential to advance planning at the global scale. The inaugural Jammal Lecture was delivered in 2007, shortly before Himi's death, and continues to touch upon issues as diverse as global cities, third-world urbanization and comparative urban policy.