Prof. Peng Yigang (1932-2022) was a distinguished Chinese architect, educator, and theorist. He was academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor and honorary dean at the School of Architecture of Tianjin University where he was recognized as a national master of architectural design. He authored over ten academic books and over 60 papers on topics such as architectural space, Chinese gardens, and creative expression. His scholarly and design works earned him numerous awards at the national and ministerial levels, including the prestigious Liang Sicheng Architecture Award in 2003 and the China Architecture Education Award in 2006. Prof. Kou Huaiyun is an expert in conserving and revitalizing historical urban and rural landscapes. She teaches at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai.
She has secured funding from prestigious sources, such as the National Natural Science Foundation, the National Social Science Foundation, and the National Postdoctoral Fund of China. She spent two years , from 2016 to 2018, as a visiting scholar at the University of Washington in the USA, with the support of the China Scholarship Council Fund. Prof. Kou is a national registered urban planner in China. Her projects have received international and national recognition, including the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation Program, the National Award for Outstanding Urban-Rural Planning & Design, the National Architectural Design Award, and the Science and Technology Progress Award of Chinese Society of Landscape Architecture. Prof. Ron. Henderson is an international leader in landscape architecture design, history, research, and education.
His broad range of research includes: gardens and contemporary urbanism in China and Japan, indigenous arboriculture and horticulture practices, botanical drawing, and landscape-based urbanism. He is the author of The Gardens of Suzhou, 30 Trees, and numerous articles and book chapters on landscape architecture, urban design, and gardens. He is professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he served as Director from 2015-2022, and founding principal of LIRIO Landscape Architecture. He held previous positions at Harvard University, Pennsylvania State University, Tsinghua University, and Rhode Island School of Design. He is a former Senior Fellow of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks and is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.