Upali Nanda, PhD
Global Practice Director, Research, and Partner HKS
Dr. Upali Nanda is global practice director of research and a partner at HKS, a global architectural firm. She serves as executive director of Center for Advanced Design Research and Evaluation, or CADRE, the research arm of HKS, and as an associate professor in the Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan.
Based in Detroit, Dr. Nanda has extensive experience leading research projects in design practice with a focus on the impact of design on human health and perception. She published the book Sensthetics (2008) based upon her doctoral work and is widely published in peer-reviewed journals and quoted in the media. Dr. Nanda's research has received the European Healthcare Design Research Award and two Environmental Design Research Association CORE awards. She has been named one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in Healthcare Design by Healthcare Design Magazine (2015) and honored with the Women in Architecture Innovator Award from Architectural Record (2018).
She received her Bachelor of Architecture from India’s School of Architecture and Design, her Master of Architecture from the National University of Singapore, and a PhD from Texas A&M University.