Serge Salat

Serge Salat – Urban Morphology and Complex Systems Institute in Paris, France

Serge Salat is an urban planner, a scientist in the science of complexity, an art historian and an internationally recognized architect/artist. He is the founder and President of the Urban Morphology and Complex Systems Institute based in Paris.

Serge Salat has been seminal in applying the science of complexity to cities. He has authored more than 20 books on art and architecture, as well as more than one hundred publications and communications. He has opened the way in introducing physics far away from the equilibrium, fractals, as well as network analysis and complexity science to a better understanding of cities.

He is a practicing architect and city planner and advises international organizations such as United Nations, The World Bank, AFD (French Agency for Development) and CDC (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations), on strategic transitions of urbanization in particular in China, where he brings a unique integration of scientific skills, economic, financial and governance competence with his experience of designer of large scale projects to advise on national policies as well as on specific projects. He is one of the authors of the Fifth IPCC assessment report.

Born in 1956, he graduated from the École Polytechnique with a master of mathematics and physics (Paris, 1976–79), from the equally prestigious Institut d’Études Politiques (Paris, 1979–82), and from the École Nationale d’Administration (Paris, 1984). He obtained a Ph.D. in Economics (Université Paris IX Dauphine, 1979–82); a Ph.D. in Architecture (École d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, 1989); and a Ph.D. in History and Civilizations (EHESS, Paris, 2010).