Prof. Heba Allah Essam E. Khalil is a professor of sustainable urbanism at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University and senior coordinator of the Architectural Engineering and Technology AET program. She teaches and conducts research in community development, informal areas, urban climate, and integrated urban systems and her work has been published in more than 25 publications including books and journal papers.

She has built several international research partnerships on urban metabolism and improving urban micro-climate in highly dense cities through material flow analysis, simulation and participatory action research. More recently, she started a research project on gender equity and cities and another on land governance.

Prof. Khalil is an architect, urban planner, community facilitator and housing expert with local and international multi-scale agencies, authorities, and clients.

She is currently developing local area development plans bridging the gap between strategic city plans and current detailed planning practices to improve quality of life for three informal districts within the Greater Cairo Region. As an Alumna of SPURS and MIT Dr. Khalil continuously seeks partnerships to support a new approach to planning and design practice for sustainable urbanism in her region.