Vikas Mehta, PhD, is a Professor of Urbanism, the Fruth/Gemini chair and Ohio Eminent Scholar of urban/environmental design at the School of Planning, University of Cincinnati. His work focuses on the role of design and planning in creating a more responsive, equitable, and communicative environment. He is interested in various dimensions of urbanity through the exploration of place as a social and ecological setting and as a sensorial art. Dr. Mehta has authored and edited books, book chapters, and papers on numerous topics including public space, urban design pedagogy, urban streets, neighborhoods, retail, signage and visual identity, public space in the Global south and more. Dr. Mehta is the co-editor of Companion to Public Space (Routledge, 2020), Public Space Reader (Routledge, forthcoming 2021), editor of Public Space, a 4-volume anthology (Routledge, 2015), and co-author of 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School (Three Rivers Press/Penguin, 2018) and author of The Street: a quintessential social public space (Routledge, 2013) that received the 2014 Book Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and was also a finalist for the 2014 Francis Tibbalds Award for Best Book of the Year. Dr. Mehta holds degrees in architecture, urban design and city planning.