Amal Hamdy is an assistant professor of architecture and urban design at The American University in Cairo (AUC). She has a PhD in planning, design and construction with an emphasis on an environmental design from Michigan State University (MSU). Hamdy is passionate about exploring the built environment's influence on promoting socio-spatial sustainability and ecologically sound urban agglomerations. Her teaching and research are based on her educational background in multiple disciplines, including architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and urban planning. She also developed a deep understanding of the urban strategies that promote environmental and cultural resiliency within both the US and the Egyptian contexts.

She has been involved in several research projects to assess the impact of urban form and landscape spatial patterns on enhancing community values, public health and quality of life. Before she joined the AUC, she was involved in diverse interdisciplinary research projects working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the Marquette County Climate Adaptation Task Force (CATF), the Sign Research Foundation (SFI) and other partners. One of her highlight research projects was during her graduate studies at MSU. Hamdy partook in the Michigan Climate and Health Program (MICHAP) as a researcher and a design team leader for three projects (2017-2020). The MICHAP program was funded through grants from the CDC to alleviate climate change impacts on vulnerable populations in the State of Michigan. Besides her task for executing environmental design interventions in the MICHAP program, she worked closely with disenfranchised communities, local stakeholders and city officials to create resilient cities through environmentally conscious design strategies and policy recommendations.

One of Hamdy’s main areas of research interest focuses on developing the urban morphology of the macro and micro scale of cities from the lens of sustainability. Also, her research interest encompasses other issues that are crucial to delivering socio-spatial sustainability, such as climate change, green building, green infrastructure, landscape spatial patterns, placemaking, civic design, regional infrastructure development and urban design and planning. She relies mostly on her research on combining empirical and quantitative approaches to acutely examine the correlation between the built environment and humans' health and public well-being.