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• Niraj Verma is Professor and Chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at
• the University at Buffalo (State University of New York). He is also Senior Research
• Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern
• California (USC) where, before coming to Buffalo, he was on the faculty in the School of
• Policy, Planning, and Development and directed the School’s doctoral programs. Verma
• holds a Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from India, a Master’s degree in
• Infrastructure Planning from Stuttgart (Germany), and a PhD from the University of
• California, Berkeley. He is the author of several scholarly papers in leading journals and
• of Similarities, Connections, and Systems (Lexington 1998). A theorist of planning and
• management, Niraj Verma serves on the editorial board of the journal, Planning Theory.
• Nationally, he has chaired the doctoral committee of the American Collegiate Schools of
• Planning and is currently a member of the doctoral committee of the National Association
• of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. Professor Verma has been an invited
• speaker at many universities, including MIT, University of California (Berkeley), Rome
• (Italy), the Italian Civil Service Training Academy in Caserta (Italy), Seoul National
• University (Korea), University of Stuttgart, and Arizona State University among others.
• His work has been supported by several organizations, including the DAAD (German
• Academic Exchange Service), Rotary Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,
• U.S. Department of Transportation, Pew Charitable Trust, and the Zumberge Research and
• Innovation Fund (USC). Some of his work has been translated into German, Italian, and
• Korean. Verma’s current research is focused around a study of similarities between recent
• public policy concerns, such as zero tolerance against drugs in schools, three strikes law,
• and term limits. This study aims to further our understanding of how public agendas are
• formed and how they get resolved.