Jochen Monstadt is a Professor of Governance of Urban Dynamics and Transitions and holds the Chair of Spatial Planning in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University. His research and teaching focus on the place-based transformation of cities and the role of technical infrastructures—such as energy, water, wastewater, solid waste, transportation, and ICT—in shaping urban sustainability in both the global North and South.

Jochen brings extensive international experience, having worked at research institutes and universities in Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the USA. Prior to joining Utrecht in November 2016, he was a Professor of Spatial and Infrastructure Planning and Director of the Graduate School of Urban Studies at Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany (2009–2016).

He has a strong track record in collaborative research and leadership of interdisciplinary initiatives, serving as PI or co-investigator on projects funded by organizations such as the Dutch Research Council, German Research Foundation, European Commission, and Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. At Utrecht, he led the university-wide research hub “Transforming Infrastructures for Sustainable Cities” (2017–2022), exploring pathways to urban sustainability through the lens of technical infrastructures.

From 2020 to 2023, Jochen was a visiting professor at the Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés (LATTS), Université Gustave Eiffel, Paris, as part of the “Future—Inventing the Cities of Tomorrow” program. His ongoing projects include research on the governance of critical infrastructures (co-investigator of a PhD program at TU Darmstadt) and urban transitions in East and South Africa (PI of two NWO-funded consortia with African partners). Since 2025, Jochen has served as Vice President of the German Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL).