The Faculty of Engineering

Professor Michelle Mycoo is the Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Land Management. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Planning (McGill University 1996), a M.Sc. in Urban Planning (University of Hong Kong 1988) and a B.A. in Geography and Social Sciences (The University of the West Indies, Mona, 1985). Professor Mycoo is the recipient of three international scholarships: A Commonwealth Scholarship, Canadian International Development Agency Fellowship and a US Fulbright Fellowship. She received The University of the West Indies/ Guardian Group Teaching Award for Teaching Excellence in 2014 and the same year was awarded The University of the West Indies/ National Gas Company Research Award for the Most Outstanding Researcher in the Faculty of Engineering. In 2008, Michelle was also recognized by The University of the West Indies as one of 60 lecturers under the age of 60 for excellence in teaching, service and research.

Professor Mycoo is a Coordinating Lead Author for the Small Islands Chapter 15 of the Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report on Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation, which is being prepared for the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. Since 2011, she has written 16 publications which address the complex challenges of climate change and offer insights into adaptation and resilience in the context of small islands.

Professionally, Professor Mycoo has 31 years experience as an Urban and Regional Planner. Before joining academia, she was a Chartered Town Planner of the UK Royal Town Planning Institute and worked at the Town and Country Planning Division of Trinidad and Tobago, the Urban Division of the World Bank, Washington D.C. USA and as a private consultant on national and regional projects. She has been a Professional Member of the Trinidad and Tobago Society of Planners since 1991 and has served as President, Vice President and Secretary. She was also a member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners for over a decade.

Professor Mycoo’s work focuses on strengthening the interface between science, policy and practice in alignment with optimum land use, infrastructure provision and environmental management in support of sustainable human settlements. Among her scholarly contributions are 43 international peer-reviewed publications on a wide range of thematic areas on Caribbean case studies in urban and regional planning. Topics covered include: urban sustainability, climate change, integrated coastal zone planning and management, urban water demand management, disaster risk reduction, sustainable tourism, gated communities and peri-urban development. Apart from journal articles, books and book chapters, she has written training manuals, policy briefs, newsletters and viewpoints and 40 technical reports for national, regional and international policymakers and practitioners.

Professor Mycoo has been actively engaged in obtaining research funding to support scientific enquiry, capacity building and knowledge transfer. She was an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies of The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. In this capacity, she served as a co-applicant and collaborator on a Canadian funded research project on climate change under the International Community-University Research Alliance (ICURA) programme. She was also a co-applicant on the UK Department for International Development research project which investigated the sustainability of non-natural resource-based alternative livelihoods among the Caribbean’s poor living in the coastal zone.

Professor Mycoo has served as a Senior Technical Expert to several international, regional and local agencies in the fields of urban planning, sustainable land and environmental management, climate change and disaster risk reduction. Several development agencies have commissioned her as a Senior Technical Advisor including the World Bank, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the Caribbean Development Bank. Professor Mycoo is also a scientific member and steering committee member of several international bodies, for example, Future Earth Coasts and the UN Habitat University Partnership Initiative. She has served as a National Steering Committee Member of the UNDP Global Environmental Facility Small Grant Programme, a Senior Technical Advisor to the World Bank on Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Latin American and Caribbean Cities 2011-2012, and is a longstanding member of Global Water Partnership-Caribbean CAP-Net Water Network. In 2019, she was selected as 1 of 9 internationally recognized experts to serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Management of Social Transformation of UNESCO.