Wendy Tan wins Georges Allaert prize

The NICIS KEI dissertation  “Pursuing Transit Oriented Development” from Wendy Tan and the publication “Knooppuntontwikkeling in Nederland” produced with Platform31 has just been awarded the first ever Georges Allaert prize.

The Georges Allaert Prize is awarded by the Stichting MORO (The Centre for mobility and spatial planning (AMRP) at Ghent University) and Joke Schauvliege, the Flemish Minister for Town and Country Planning, Environment and Nature during the reception of the Studiedag IDM held on the 11th of December in Ghent, Belgium.

Both the doctoraal dissertation and the publication have been judged by a prestigious jury to be the most policy relevant contribution to integration of mobility and spatial planning for the society.

Main author Wendy Tan accepted the award via Skype from Singapore with the following words of thanks:

Honourable minister, prof. Allaert, vice-rector, chairperson of the jury, jury members, ladies and gentlemen,

I am incredibly honoured that the prestigious jury found both my publications to be a worthy policy relevant contribution to mobility and spatial planning in our society. I would like to thank all of you for this chance and for this praise.  My PhD research focuses on the implementation of Transit-Oriented Development in the Netherlands as a synergetic connection between mobility and spatial planning. The research was constructed with the issues and challenges in planning practice in the foreground. The resulting dissertation and publication are therefore targeted not just towards researchers and planning professionals but policy makers explicitly.

I would like to thank my promotor (Prof. Bertolini) and supervisor (Dr. Janssen-Jansen) from the University of Amsterdam for their patience and inspiration.My gratitude is also directed towards my co-authors and editors from Platform31 and  the NICIS KEI practice consortium of practitioners from the Province of Gelderland, City regions Arnhem-Nijmegen and Amsterdam, Municipality of Amsterdam, Dutch National Railways (NS)and Movares. Their financial and knowledge contribution is the only reason my research has been made possible. The fact that both publications are now broadly utilised by practitioners and policy makers is simply a confirmation of our motivation and original idea to produce for and with planning practice to achieve both policy relevance and scientific innovation.

Last but not least,  my thanks to the Stichting MORO, The Centre for mobility and spatial planning (AMRP) at Ghent University, the organisers and all present for making it possible for me to take part in this award ceremony from Singapore.

For more information, please contact Wendy Tan

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