Ray Burby, a professor emeritus of city and regional planning, has been awarded the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s (ACSP) Distinguished Educator Award.
The ACSP Distinguished Educator Award is presented in appreciation of significant contributions to the field of planning. Burby joins Jack Parker, Stu Chapin and David Godschalk from the department of city and regional planning as past Distinguished Educator Award winners.
Burby received an A.B. in government (1964) from The George Washington University and an M.R.P (1966) and Ph.D. (1969) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He joined the planning faculty at Chapel Hill in 1968, while simultaneously holding a research appointment in the UNC Center for Urban and Regional Studies, where he served as assistant director (research) from 1976 to 1987. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, in the spring of 1991and a Visiting Scholar at Middlesex University in England in 1998. In 1992, he left Chapel Hill to accept an appointment as the DeBlois Chair in Urban and Public Affairs at the University of New Orleans, where later he was appointed Distinguished Professor of City and Regional Planning. He returned to the department of city and regional planning at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2000, where he retired in 2007.
Burby’s scholarly work and contributions to planning reflect three principal interests:
- Land use planning as a means of reducing losses from natural and technological disasters, conserving energy and protecting water quality (including public drinking water supplies).
- Urban development processes and forms as they affect the quality of life, including the provision of a better understanding of the potential benefits of large-scale planned developments.
- Improvements in planning processes, including intergovernmental planning mandates, enforcement of building and land-use regulations, and citizen involvement in planning and growth management.
This work was undertaken as part of over 65 collaborative research projects involving over $8 million in funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Public Health Service, Fannie Mae Foundation, Urban Institute and many others. The results of this research are reported in 14 books and numerous book chapters, articles, and research reports prepared for both scholarly and professional planning audiences.
Burby has served as co-editor (with Edward Kaiser) of the Journal of the American Planning Association, as an associate editor of the Natural Hazards Review, and on several journal editorial boards. He has been an officer or board member of various academic and professional associations, including the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Urban Affairs Association, Southern Regional Science Association, N.C. Chapter of the American Planning Association and N.C. Chapter of the American Water Resources Association.
He has served also on many local, state, and federal government advisory committees and in other public service and advocacy positions, including the National Research Council, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Institute of Building Sciences, Institute of Building and Home Safety, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, N.C. Coastal Federation, N.C. Land Use Congress, N.C. Governor’s Solar Law Task Force, and various local commissions, committees and task forces.
