Author: Geoffrey J. D. Hewings

Francesca Romana Medda is a Professor of Applied Economics and Finance at the University College London (UCL). From 2010 she is the Director of the UCL QASER (Quantitative and Applied Spatial Economics Research) Laboratory. Since 2012 she serves as economic adviser to the UK Ministry of Environment and Agriculture (Defra) and in 2014 at the Ministry of Finance (HM Treasury). She is Vice-President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Her research focuses on project finance, innovative financial mechanisms and risk evaluation in different infrastructure sectors such as: transport industry, energy innovation and new technologies, urban investments (smart cities), supply chain provision and optimisation, and efficiency. Her work is published in leading academic and practitioner journals. She has worked and works actively with the private and public sector including The European Investment Bank, The World Bank, UNESCO, UN-Habitat, WILLIS Re, HALCROW,  and UITP.  Francesco Caravelli is a theoretical physicist, interested in quantum and classical systems and the application of techniques of statistical physics and complexity to other disciplines such as economics and engineering. He is currently a Senior Researcher at Invenia Lab, a honorary member in the Computer Science Department at University College London and a visitor of the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Simone Caschili, enviromental engineer, received his Ph.D. in Ingegneria del Territorio (Land Engineering and Urban Planning) at University of Cagliari (IT) in February 2010. His research interests are the modelling of urban and regional systems as complex networks, the inclusion of time-space features in network modelling and policy evaluation for planning in both urban and environmental governance.