Rachel Cooper OBE
Rachel Cooper OBE is Professor of Design Management at Lancaster University, where she is Chair of the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts and Director of ImaginationLancaster, an open and exploratory design-led research lab.
Her research interests cover design management; design policy; new product development; design in the built environment; design against crime and socially responsible design. She is currently Principle Investigator on four-year research project, The Creative Exchange, working with the creative and digital sector on the Digital Public Space, she is also co-investigator of Liveable Cities, an ambitious five-year programme of research to transform the engineering of cities. www.liveablecities.org.uk.
She has authored and co-authored several books in the field including The Design Agenda, The Design Experience, Designing Sustainable Cities and Wellbeing and the Environment. She is also editor for an Ashgate series on Socially Responsible Design.
Professor Cooper is lead expert to the Government Foresight programme on the Future of Cities and also a non-executive Director of the Future of Cities Catapult. She has also undertaken several advisory roles to national and international universities, government and non-governmental organisations.