The Impact Hub Project Team Members
Dr John Weightman is the Programme and Partnership Development Manager for Healthy and Innovative Loughborough which includes The Impact Hub, one of a series of projects designed to deliver change to Loughborough. He also works part-time as a director in several businesses that operate across different market sectors providing to the project an insight into the commercial environment, associated challenges and opportunities.
Dr Robert Harland is a Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage at Loughborough University. His research seeks to understand the micro, meso, and macro scale at which people, place, and purpose are integrated through the lens of graphic design as urban design. This is guided by the question: How do graphic objects facilitate the function of cities and urban places? In 2017 he established the Urbanism theme for University’s Built Environment Beacon. Most recently he has contextualised these interests through the role of graphic heritage as a tool for civic engagement within urban heritage.
Dr Taimaz Larimian is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at Loughborough University with expertise in social sustainability, participatory planning, and spatial data visualisation. Her background is in urban planning and regional development. Her primary research domain is urban social sustainability, and she has conducted research on a range of topics pertaining to the adaptability, resilience, and liveability of cities. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of her research, she has carried out research with academics in the fields of Business and Economics, Geography, Energy Planning, and Social Sciences, that is evidenced by multiple cross-disciplinary publications, mini-CDTs, and grant and enterprise applications. Taimaz has more than five years of working experience in different planning consultancies and collaborating with different city councils and community organisations in the UK, New Zealand, and Iran.
Dr Asya Natapov is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, UK. She joined Loughborough University in 2020, having completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Marie Curie Researcher at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. She is an architect by training and a graduate of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Her research interests include spatial cognition, visual perception, wayfinding, route planning, navigation systems, urban morphology and micro-mobility of underrepresented groups.
Dr Garyfalia (Falli) Palaiologou is a Visiting Fellow in Urban Design at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, UK where she was previously based as Senior Lecturer in Urban Design. Falli’s research and publications explore the role of urban form and placemaking in creating human-centred and sustainable cities. More recently, her work focuses on the development of digital tools and the use of open data to support equitable and transparent decision-making and community participation in urban planning. Before joining Loughborough University in 2017, Falli was Research Fellow at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture at the Space Syntax Laboratory, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Dr Aline Fernandes Barata works as a Research Associate in Urban and Regional Studies at Loughborough University. She has a PhD in Planning from Oxford Brookes University, master’s in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and bachelor’s in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Aline’s research and teaching interests include participatory approaches and methods, Southern urbanism, mobility justice and contested heritage. Previously, she worked as an Associate Lecturer and Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University, and as an Architect and Planning Assistant in Brazil.
Dr Cristina A. G. Kiminami works as a Research Associate at Loughborough University in 2024, focusing on data visualisation for urban studies. She holds a PhD in Digital Humanities from King’s College London, a Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo, and a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo. Her main research interests are critical cartography, locative media, walking experiences in urban environments, and deep mapping.
Dr Mohammad Forghanielahababdi is a Research Associate in Spatial Data Science at Loughborough University, contributing to the Impact Hub project. His research focuses on spatial movement modelling and crowd-sourced spatial data analytics, using computational methods to extract insights from large-scale spatial datasets. With a background in Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), he specializes in spatial data mining and knowledge discovery. Currently, he contributes to the Town Observatory, leveraging data-driven insights to address town challenges in Loughborough.
Mihyun Kim is an interdisciplinary spatial researcher and studied Space Syntax at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture. Her focus is on how the shapes of various spaces reflect the appearance of modern society and the lives of the public. Previously, she was a Researcher at Architecture and Urban National Research Institute and an Adjunct Professor in South Korea. Currently, she is working as a Research Officer in Spatial Data Science at Loughborough University. Mihyun is also serving in an expert advisory role for Design Council, having been endorsed by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Mohamed Shamroukh is a doctoral researcher at The Impact Hub, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, specialising in GIS and Urban Planning. His PhD research focuses on data-driven modelling and geospatial analysis to support pedestrian-friendly urban planning and sustainable city development. He has extensive experience in research and teaching, covering GIS, urban planning, remote sensing, and geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI). Previously, he was a research and teaching assistant at South Valley University, Egypt, where he contributed to GIS and urban studies.
Pegah Aftabi is a doctoral researcher at Loughborough University, School of Design and Creative Arts. She holds an MSc in Urban Heritage Conservation and a BSc in Architectural Engineering. In her PhD project titled “Co-creating Urban Heritage Narratives in Loughborough,” Pegah investigates how communities perceive and engage with heritage in urban settings. Her work focuses on developing a community-centred urban heritage toolkit that integrates community perspectives into official planning processes. Pegah’s current research and teaching activities include participatory methods, social design, placemaking, and urban data visualisation.
Claire Quigley is a Research Associate at Loughborough University, with over 20 years of experience in a broad spectrum of nationally and internationally funded research projects. Her main areas of expertise are in safe road design, road user behaviour, and accessibility. More recently, she has expanded her research into the critical area of flexible energy use in residential settings, an emerging field vital to advancing sustainability and shifting to low-carbon living. In addition to her research roles, Claire has been a Research Development Associate within the University’s Research and Innovation Office. This diverse experience has given her valuable insight into how research can generate meaningful impact and the strategies required to support it. Claire plans to use this knowledge to develop a framework to assess and measure impact within The Impact Hub and its associated projects.