Lecturer: Zhan Gou, Professor of Urban Planning and Transportation Policy, NYU

Zhan Guo's research explores innovative ways to influence an individual's decision-making process in order to produce better social outcomes. At the micro level, this includes travelers' perceived travel alternatives and discrepancies between their perceptions and reality. More specifically, Guo explores the perception of information acquisition, through transit map design. In the cases of the London Underground and Washington DC subway, distortion of schematic system maps has proven to affect passenger path choices, and therefore, can become an effective tool in controlling congestion and the overall performance of a subway system. Guo's work has been covered by New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Economist, Le Monde, ABC Evening News, the Atlantic Cities, Nudges.org, etc.

Zhan Guo received a B. Arch from Tianjin University, China, and a MCP and a Ph.D in Urban Planning from M.I.T.