Larissa Larsen, an associate professor of urban and regional planning, has been named an associate editor of the journal npj Urban Sustainability. She joins a group of global associate editors who hold appointments in Melbourne, Cape Town, New York, and Hong Kong. The journal, whose editor-in-chief is Thomas Elmqvist of Stockholm University, is a new open-access, online-only publication. The content will focus on sustainable urbanization, urbanization in the Global South and developing countries, and dynamics and challenges to sustainability in urban areas. 

Larsen’s research identifies environmental inequities in the built environment and advances issues of urban sustainability. She collaborates with faculty from U-M’s School of Public Health to conduct urban heat vulnerability assessments for the National Institutes of Health and recently has been leading a green infrastructure planning project with collaborators in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that focuses on water and infrastructure stresses on the rapidly growing city. At Taubman College, Larsen teaches courses in environmental planning, land use planning, and physical planning and design. 

Larsen also is a member of the U-M President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality, an advisory group created by President Mark Schlissel in February 2019 to create strategies for the university to achieve carbon neutrality.