Kemal Taruc is researching urban resilience at Northeastern University for three months to learn from the recent experiences of American cities that have to withstand both natural disasters and societal hazards, in which resiliency has become a new turn in urban planning and policy-making. He has also researched sustainable cities and urban development with other US, Canada, and Germany universities.

He earned an urban planning degree from Institut Teknik Bandung, a master’s degree in organizational studies from Rutgers University, and a master’s in risk management from Glasgow Caledonian University. He was previously a Hubert Humphrey Fellow and an International LEAD Fellow.

He is currently a senior lecturer and founding faculty member of the Graduate Program in Urban Development at Universitas Tarumanagara, Jakarta; he also leads the policy research team as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council of Indonesia.