Jan. 26. 2023

The New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association presented Dr. Mahbubur Meenar, an associate professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Sustainability in Rowan University’s School of Earth & Environment, with its Outstanding Community Engagement and Education Award.

Meenar’s educational background is extensive. He studied architecture in Bangladesh and earned his master’s degree in urban and regional planning at the University of Buffalo. He received his doctorate in geography and urban studies from Temple University.

“I switched from architecture to planning because I was interested about the whole city rather than [just] a building,” Meenar said.

The same philosophy is what brought him to Rowan University, and what drove him to develop the community and environmental planning program on campus to help towns all over South Jersey. His success catapulted him to the top of the program and he helped initiate a graduate urban planning program that coincides with the lab.

“I was actually in charge of developing [the urban planning] program in my very first year,” Meenar said. “We just recently launched in 2020, during the pandemic, our very first cohort that started the graduate program.”

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The Whit is a student-operated campus news outlet for Rowan University and a content partner with South Jersey Climate News.