Dr Anthony Townsend | Senior Research Scientist
New York University

Townsend is an urban planner and forecaster whose writing, public speaking, activism, and consulting focus on urbanization, ubiquitous computing, and technology-led innovation and economic development. He is the former Research Director at the Institute for the Future, an independent research organization based in California’s Silicon Valley, the co-founder of NYCwireless, a pioneer in the community broadband movement; and was named one of Planetizen’s “Leading Thinkers in Urban Planning & Technology” and Postscapes’ “Top 100 Thinkers.” He holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s in urban planning from New York University, and a B.A. in urban studies with a minor in physics from Rutgers University.