Jinhua Zhao MCP '04, SM '04, PhD '09 has been appointed head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), effective July 1. Zhao is the Class of 1941 Professor of Cities and Transportation at MIT. In making the announcement, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning Hashim Sarkis noted that Zhao is a renowned transportation planner, educator, and scholar, and a world leader in imagining and shaping better futures for mobility. 'Jinhua is one of those rare scholars who moves seamlessly between cutting-edge research and real-world policy,' says Sarkis. 'His work with governments and transportation agencies around the world is a model for what MIT's impact can look like beyond our campus.' Zhao succeeds Professor Christopher Zegras, who has served as department head since 2020. Under his leadership, DUSP expanded opportunities for students to engage directly with communities and policymakers around the world and continued to strengthen its long-standing connection between research and practice. 'I want to extend my gratitude to Chris Zegras for his excellent and level-headed leadership, especially in challenging times,' says Sarkis....

Through his teaching, ideas, and the institutions he created at MIT, King profoundly influenced DUSP and its community members, who showcase the love and admiration for his presence at MIT in the remembrances below. These memories encapsulate King's insightfulness, courage, spirit, and brilliance, and attest to his legacy through the individuals he mentored and inspired. "Mel changed much more than our department and MIT. It's plainly clear that the city of Boston, the state of Massachusetts, and beyond, would not be the same without having had the privilege of Mel King as one of its citizens," said Chris Zegras, professor and department head, at an event addressing the Mel King Community Fellows Program. "Massachusetts is often recognized for its leaders ' political, literary, educational, technological ' among this historical group, Mel King stands at the pinnacle." 'As I recall, Mel came to DUSP about 1971 when I was a graduate student. He would be a part of our community for more than 20 years. He taught community economic development and community development. He supervised theses and hosted events. But he was far more than someone who taught a critical part of a curriculum,' wrote Phillip Clay, former MIT chancellor and professor emeritus in DUSP. 'He was a presence ' both gentle and imposing. Affirming and challenging. He could be gentle and tough. His questions cut to the core of the matter under discussion.'...

The MIT Press has launched MIT Press Open Architecture and Urban Studies, a robust digital collection of classic and previously out-of-print architecture and urban studies books, on their digital book platform MIT Press Direct. The collection was funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as part of the Humanities Open Book Program, which they co-sponsored with the National Endowment for the Humanities. For years, the MIT Press has fielded requests for e-book editions of classic, out-of-print works, like the two volumes of “The Staircase,” by John Templer; “On Leon Battista Alberti: His Literary and Aesthetic Theories,” by Mark Jarzombek; “Possible Palladian Villas: (Plus a Few Instructively Impossible Ones),” by George L. Hersey and Richard Freedman, and “Making a Middle Landscape,” by Peter Rowe. Many of these foundational texts were published before the advent of e-books and remained undigitized because of complex design requirements and the prohibitive cost of image permissions....