Ndubisi listed among nations’
25 ‘Most Admired Educators’

Forster Ndubisi, head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M since 2004, has been named for the second consecutive year to a select list of 25 of the nation's top educators.

He's one of the DesignIntelligence newsletter’s Most Admired Educators of 2010, an annual list selected by the publication’s staff as examples of excellence in design leadership. The staff compiles the list with input from hundreds of design professionals, academic department heads and students.

DesignIntelligence is the Design Futures Council’s bi-monthly report on the future, delivering research news, commentary and best practices.

In addition to penning numerous articles, papers and book chapters, Ndubisi has authored or co-authored three books.

“Ecological Planning: A Historical and Comparative Account,” perhaps his most important book, was published in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University Press to wide acclaim for its refreshing and innovative approach to the topics of land use planning and landscape architecture.

The book earned the Certificate of Merit Award from the ASLA’s Washington chapter. 

“The author’s goals are on target, for no other book sets the ideas of landscape planning into a set of developing concepts within a historical context,” wrote Sally Schauman of Duke University in a review of Ndubisi’s book. “There are few books on landscape planning in general and none to my knowledge that attempt both a complete overview and a comparative analysis. Ndubisi’s approach is sound in every way. This book is long overdue.”

He's also the author of Public Policy and Land Use in Georgia: A Reference Book (1996) andPlanning Implementation Tools and Techniques: A Resource Book (1992).

Among his honors are the American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award in research in 1988 and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture President’s Award for Contribution to Education in Landscape Architecture in 1993.

He was a co-recipient of the Georgia ASLA President’s Award for Excellence in Professional Achievement in 1994, and his research on approaches to ecological planning won the ASLA’s only Honor Award for Research in 1999. 

Ndubisi was elected a Fellow of CELA in recognition of his long-standing contributions to education and research in landscape architecture and is a past president of the organization. He is currently the vice president for research and information for the national Landscape Architecture Foundation Board and a Senior Fellow at Texas A&M's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center.

Ndubisi earned a bachelor of science degree in zoology and ecology from Nigeria's University of Ibadan in 1977 and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada in 1982. He completed his doctoral studies in regional planning and resource development in 1987 at the University of Waterloo, also in Ontario. 

Ndubisi specializes in ecological design and planning, community design, growth management and interdisciplinary design education.

A native of Nigeria, Ndubisi is the son of two schoolteachers who instilled in him a zeal for learning that paid off when he finished high school at the age of 16. His father, who earned a doctorate in education from Columbia University, also served as chairman of the education commission for the Nigerian state of Anambra. Sadly, he died on the same day that Ndubisi interviewed for the department head position at Texas A&M. 

Though his high school graduation exam indicated he was best suited for a career in religion, ultimately the built and natural environments captured Ndubisi’s imagination. 

“I had several opportunities to travel abroad, and during those trips it occurred to me that there was a substantial difference in the quality of the built environment between Nigeria and England,” he recalled. “In Lagos, there was environmental degradation, disorganization and inadequate infrastructure and land use policies — basically, the carrying capacity of the environment was exceeded.” 

Though his parents wanted him to pursue a degree in medicine, he began his college studies in engineering. However, when his application to medical school came through after his first semester, he conceded to his parents’ wishes, only to discover later on that he simply wasn’t suited for the medical profession. 

“Theoretically, I could do it,” he said, “but when I went to the hospital, I felt sad.” 

So, to retain his credits in the biological sciences at the University of Ibadan, he switched his undergraduate major to zoology and added a minor in ecology. It wasn’t until his senior year, while perusing a Guelph university course catalogue, that he discovered landscape architecture. He made copies of the pages and “every now and then” he’d take them out and read them again. 

“It mentioned the ability to creatively weave knowledge from the arts and sciences in addressing design and planning issues, and an intense desire to enhance the quality of people’s lives in the built and natural environments,” Ndubisi recalled. “The field seemed to cement all of the things that I wanted to do.” 

However, landscape architecture is a relatively obscure field in Nigeria. When he told his mother what he wanted to study, she asked, “How can such a brilliant guy like you be a gardener?” It wasn’t until a friend in the land development business showed him plans, drawn by an Italian firm, for a resort project that was under construction in Nigeria that Ndubisi discovered exactly what it was that a landscape architect does. He wrote to the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and asked which school offered the best programs. Serendipitously, they wrote back and recommended Guelph. 

After earning his doctorate in 1987 at Waterloo, Ndubisi accepted a dual appointment at the University of Georgia where, in the School of Environmental Design, he taught courses in environmental analysis and led studios in urban design, planning, landscape architecture and community design. At the same time, he worked with the university’s Institute of Community and Area Development. 

In 1997, Ndubisi accepted the directorship of the newly established Interdisciplinary Design Institute at Washington State University - Spokane. 

The institute was created to foster collaborative learning, research and community service projects involving the four built environment disciplines taught at Washington State — architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and construction management.

- Posted: Jan. 02, 2010 -