Sam Cole

Biography

Before joining the Department of Environmental Planning and Design at UB in 1983, Professor Sam Cole worked in a wide variety of national and international positions in national, urban, and regional planning. Educated at Imperial College London and Sussex University and after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge he was became a Senior Scientific Officer in the Urban Planning Division of the UK Department of Environment. In 1971 Sam was appointed Senior Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Visiting Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, New York, with appointments in Papua New Guinea and Sweden, and Professor in the UB Department of Geography. Over the years he has consulted with international and regional development agencies and private organizations in many countries in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific, and the Americas. He has drafted policy documents for several high-level UN Committees including the Commission on Culture and Development, the UN Population Division, and the UNESCO Medium Term Plan. Prior to his arrival in Buffalo Sam was Senior Economist in charge of the preparation of a macro-economic plan for the independence of the island nation of Aruba and continues to research disaster management, tourism, and public policy issues in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Sam has published well-over one hundred scholarly articles, books, and consultant reports.

Research Interest

Professor Cole's research interests match his teaching and experience. He is currently involved in projects on methods of futures studies with the United Nations University Millennium Project, Tourism Planning, Disaster Management and Planning with a European-Japanese-US group, and social accounting methods in regional science. His most recent research involves the application of chaos and innovation theories to secular and metropolitan development. He is a member of several university research institutes, including the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, National Center for Geographic Information Systems, the Environment and Society Institute, the Center for Urban Studies, and formerly Director of the Center for Regional Studies. He is currently a member of the World Futures Studies Federation, the International Input-Output Association, the North American and International Regional Science Associations.