Dr Philipp Ulbrich joined as Research Associate to the UKRI GCRF project URBE Latam and the ESRC project Digital Footprint Data for localising SDGs. Driven by critical approaches to data and science and technology studies, and critical pedagogy, his research focuses on the implementation of urban sustainable development and resilience measurement frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, across the global, national, municipal and neighbourhood and community scales, especially in marginalised neighbourhoods in both global South and global North.

Prior to returning to academia for his PhD in Urban Sciences at the University of Warwick in 2016, Philipp worked for over a decade in economic and urban development projects and initiatives in consulting and the public sector in the UK, Spain, the Americas, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Previous research project experience includes the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Improving Health in Slums (involvement from 2017 to 2019). He has a Master’s in Local Economic Development (economic geography) from the London School of Economics (2010) and a BSc (Hons.) in Management (University of Warwick Business School, 2006).

With a passion to understand the extent to which intra-urban inequalities are represented in urban measurement and how data practices can be made more equitable and transformative, Philipp’s PhD research focused on Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11; sustainable cities and communities) as a case study and included work with UN-Habitat, Colombia’s National Statistics Office, the municipality of Medellín and three communities in self-constructed neighbourhoods.

Philipp is course lecturer of the Big Data, Policy and Power course (Honours Course of the Social and Public Policy undergraduate programme, convened by Prof Porto de Albuquerque) and currently supervises two Urban Studies master’s theses.

Publication links

• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate

• Director, Urban Big Data CentreProfessor,
• Urban StudiesAssociate,
• Institute of Health and Wellbeing