Esra Suel is an Associate Professor of Urban Analytics at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich (UZH), and one of the DSI Professors.

Esra obtained her PhD in Transport and Urban Systems from Imperial College London in 2016 and has held various postdoctoral research positions at both Imperial College and ETH Zurich. In 2022, she joined the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London as a Lecturer, where she was appointed Associate Professor of City Modelling in 2024.

Her research group develops computational methods to analyze built environments and human behavior in cities, focusing on mobility, land use, housing, and their connections to social, environmental, and health inequalities. Current projects particularly address the transition to net zero and key housing challenges in urban areas. The group aims to:

• Quantify city- and population-level changes at fine spatial scales using emerging digital and traditional data sources,
• Model urban dynamics for forecasting and scenario testing by integrating agent-based models, spatial interaction models, and deep learning techniques,
• Investigate how individual behavior evolves over time and in response to interventions within urban contexts.

Visit her research group page, Urban Analytics, for more details