Lawrence D. Frank

Lawrence D. Frank PhD CIP specializes in the interaction between land use, travel behavior, air quality and health as well as the energy use and climate change impacts of urban form policies. He is a “walkability pioneer” and was among the very first to quantify connections between built environment, active transportation and health. He coined the term “walkability” in the early 1990s and his work led to WalkScore and has been cited over 44,000 times. He has been listed in Thompson and Reuter’s top 1% in the social sciences and was recently ranked the #1 top planning academic in North America according to Google Scholar. Frank has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and reports and co-authored Health and Community Design and Urban Sprawl and Public Health nearly two decades ago, mapping out the field emerging at the nexus between built and natural environments, transportation and public health. Frank is also president of Urban Design 4 Health, Inc.