Dr. Psyllidis, A.

Achilleas Psyllidis is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.

Academic Background

Achilleas is an Assistant Professor of Location Intelligence and Spatial Analysis at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). He is leading the Urban Analytics research group within the Knowledge and Intelligence Design section of the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) faculty. He is also an affiliate of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), where he leads the Social Urban Data Lab, and is co-Principal Investigator of the Urban Data Science research program. He is further affiliated with the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Center for BOLD (Big, Open, and Linked Data) Cities. 

His research bridges city design, urban health, and spatial data science. Emphasis is on how city form and urban design interplay with environmental exposures and associated health and well-being outcomes. There are two essential components to his research. The first is the development of innovative built-environment metrics to conceptualize and measure exposure-related aspects of accessibility, walkability, and proximity, tailored to age, perception, urban morphology, mobility behavior, and activity dynamics. The second is about identifying how much of a built-environment feature leads to specific health and well-being outcomes, to provide measurable evidence for urban design standards that can be used in health-promoting design interventions. In pursuing this, he brings together concepts from location theory, complexity science, systems thinking, public health, and urban science, and combines them with cutting-edge spatial data science methods. He further reflects this approach in his teaching endeavors. He is leading related research activities in European, International, and Dutch research projects (e.g., Equal-Life, PERISCOPE, Social Distancing Dashboard, Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience, Urban Digital Twins) about cities, environmental exposures, health, and well-being.

Before joining the IDE faculty, he was a postdoctoral researcher within the Web Information Systems (WIS) group, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (EEMCS), TU Delft, between 2016 and 2019. He holds a PhD in Spatial Data Science from TU Delft (2016), as a scholar of the Onassis Foundation, the European Union Social Fund (ESF), the Greek State Scholarships Foundation, the Foundation for Education and European Culture, and the A.G. Leventis Foundation. He has also served as research affiliate of the Joint Research Center for Spatial Information (Wuhan University & TU Delft), and of the Joint Research Center for Urban Systems and Environment (South China University of Technology & TU Delft).

Education

• 2012 – 2016
  PhD in Spatial Data Science, Delft University of Technology. Thesis: "Revisiting Urban Dynamics through Social Urban Data"
• 2009 – 2011
  MPhil in Spatial Planning (Summa Cum Laude, Highest GPA), National Technical University of Athens
• 2001 – 2007
  Dipl. Eng. (equivalent to MSc) in Architectural Engineering (Summa Cum Laude, Highest GPA), National Technical University of Athens

Experience

• 2020 – Present
  Assistant Professor of Location Intelligence and Spatial Analysis
  Knowledge and Intelligence Design group, Industrial Design Engineering faculty, Delft University of Technology
• 2016 – Present
  Research Fellow and Head of the Social Urban Data Lab (SUDL), Urban Data and Intelligence, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS)
• 2016 – Present
  Research Affiliate, Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Center for BOLD (Big, Open, Linked Data) Cities
• 2016 – 2019
  Postdoctoral Researcher, Web Information Systems group, faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology
• 2017 – 2018
  Research Affiliate, Joint Research Center for Spatial Information, Delft University of Technology and Wuhan University
• 2014 – 2016
  Research Affiliate, Joint Research Center for Urban Systems and Environment, Delft University of Technology and South China University of Technology
• 2012 – 2016
  PhD Researcher, faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology
• 2012 – 2013
  Lecturer on Future Cities, The Why Factory, MVRDV and the Urbanism department of the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology
• 2010 – 2012
  Assistant Lecturer, Urban & Regional Planning, and Building Science Labs, National Technical University of Athens