G.
Holmes Perkins Award
Dr.
Sidney Wong,
assistant professor of city and
regional planning, is this year's
recipient of the G. Holmes Perkins
Award for Distinguished Teaching.
He was acknowledged for his teaching
contributions at this year's
award ceremony on Sunday, May 18. Dr.
Wong received his Ph.D. in city and regional
planning from University of California
at Berkeley, and his M.S. in town planning
from the University of Wales, a masters
and bachelors degree of social science
from the University of Hong Kong. His
doctoral dissertation was selected by
the Association of Collegiate School
of Planning in 1998 as the best planning
dissertation in North America.
He
joined GSFA in January 2000 and teaches
courses in urban economic development,
quantitative methods, policy analysis,
and evaluation, primarily to students
in City and Regional Planning. As Director
of Information Resources West Philadelphia
and Philadelphia Data Consortium, he
is responsible for overseeing the creation
of a West Philadelphia information system,
now widely used by neighborhood groups
involved in planning and development
of the neighborhoods adjacent to campus.
(See http://westphillydata.library.upenn.edu/ for
more information about InfoR.)
His
teaching philosophy is to provide a nurturing,
learning environment. He uses his research
and planning experience to stimulate
students to be analytical and responsive
to urban issues. Students have noted
that the models and templates developed
in his quantitative planning courses
have been of great value to them in their
final studio work. Dr. Wong is planning
to develop new courses in the area of
community and economic development that
will tie in with his current research
in assessing tax incentive programs and
examining community use of information
technology.
The
G. Holmes Perkins Award is given in recognition
of distinguished teaching and innovation
in the methods of instruction in the
classroom, seminar, or studio to a faculty
member in GSFA. The award is named in
honor of G. Holmes Perkins who served
as Dean of the School, 1951-1971, and
was established by former Dean and Paley
Professor Patricia Conway in 1993. G.
Holmes Perkins has long been internationally
recognized as a brilliant planner and
educator, attracting an extraordinary
faculty to the University.
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