Award-winning educator, researcher to head Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
Galen Newman, whose teaching and research have earned numerous awards and honors, is the new head of the Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. He has served as the department’s interim head since August 2021.
“He holds himself to high standards and has a plan to bring the department to new heights,” said Patrick Suermann, interim dean of the Texas A&M School of Architecture. “He’s a great academic leader and I’m excited for what’s to come from the department.”
Newman said he looks to build on the considerable legacy of his most immediate predecessors, Shannon Van Zandt and Forster Ndubisi.
“They have left an amazing, solid and reputable foundation and large shoes to fill,” said Newman. “I look forward to the challenge of enhancing the department’s reputation and inscribing the department with my own legacy.”
“With the assistance of our fantastic faculty, students, staff, former students, professional affiliates, and other support members, the department will become the national leader and an internationally renowned department for interdisciplinary, evidence-based design, development, and planning,” he said.
Newman joined the Aggie faculty as an assistant professor of landscape architecture and urban planning in 2011, and was promoted to associate professor in 2017. The head of Texas A&M’s Center for Housing and Urban Development, Newman has also served as the Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree programs’ coordinator.
Newman, who holds the Nicole and Kevin Youngblood Professorship in Residential Land Development, leads courses and studios on sustainable communities, geodesign, urban design and the history of landscape architecture.
His research interests include urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, community flood resilience and community/urban scaled design. Newman has received project funding from many different organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
He has authored, co-authored or edited more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, seven book chapters and two books – Engaged Research for Community Resilience to Climate Change, and Landscape Architecture for Sea Level Rise: Global Innovative Solutions.
Newman is a faculty fellow or affiliate of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Center for Health Systems & Design, Center for Heritage Conservation, Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities, Center for Texas Beaches and Shores, Center for Geospatial Sciences, and Texas Sea Grant’s Community Resilience Collaborative.
Newman earned a Ph.D. in Planning, Design and the Built Environment at Clemson University in 2010, and three degrees at Auburn University: a Master of Community Planning degree and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree in 2006, and a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree in 2003.
