Sarah Williams

Associate Professor, Urban Planning

Sarah Williams is currently an associate professor of urban planning and the director of the Civic Data Design Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) School of Architecture and Planning School. The Civic Data Design Lab works with data, maps, and mobile technologies to develop interactive design and communication strategies that bring urban policy issues to broader audiences. Trained as a geographer (Clark University), landscape architect (University of Pennsylvania), and urban planner (MIT), Prof. Williams’s work combines geographic analysis and design. Her design work has been widely exhibited, including work in the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Before coming to MIT, Prof. Williams was co-director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). She has won numerous awards, including being named one of the top 25 planners in the technology and 2012 Game Changer by Metropolis Magazine. Her work is currently on view in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.