CSDE Spotlight: Philip Hurvitz

Posted: 9/16/2020 (CSDE Research)

Dr. Philip Hurvitz joined CSDE in 2019 to lead the UW Data Collaborative, a high-performance, high-capacity, secure data storage and computing cluster that allows researchers at the UW to access and analyze data that contain highly sensitive personal or health information. He holds a PhD in Urban Design and Planning and a Master of Forest Resources (MFR) from UW and has extensive research and methods expertise in the quantitative analysis of environment and human behavior, GIS, and informatics. His research on the built environment and health-related behaviors has been published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, Population Health Metrics, and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, to name just a few of his recent works. At CSDE, he provides end-to-end research consultations to both students and faculty for research related to geographic information systems analyses, database management, processing of large data sets, use of ubiquitous sensing devices such as global positioning system data loggers and accelerometers, and automation of data processing.  Hurvitz also teaches in CSDE’s certificate program and short course workshops.

Dr. Hurvitz’s current collaborations include leading data management and GIS work for the Urban Form Lab at UW, which does research focusing on quantitative analysis of environment and human behavior, with particular focus on built environment and health- and transportation-related behavior. He has also promoted and supported use of GIS at UW since 1997 as the lead contact for the UW’s site license with Esri and manager of the UW GIS Listserv, UW-GIS-L.Previous to his appointment in CSDE, he was GIS Specialist and Lecturer in the UW College of Forest Resources (1997-2004), Research Assistant (2004-2010) and Research Associate (2011-2012) at the UW Urban Form Lab, and Research Assistant Professor (2012-2019) in the UW Department of Urban Design and Planning.