About Us

Professor Justin Hollander directs the Urban Mars Project and teaches in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.  For several years he served on the Mission Advisory Board of Mars One and is the author of ten books on urban planning and design, including  “An Ordinary City: Planning for Growth and Decline in New Bedford, Massachusetts” (Palgrave, 2018) and “A Research Agenda for Shrinking Cities” (Edward Elgar, 2018).

Berk Diker is a graduate of the Interior Architecture graduate program at Suffolk University and was a Research Assistant on the project. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Bilkent University and working towards the design and development of ideal living and working environments on Mars. He has worked and written his Master’s thesis on the cognitive and behavioral impact of isolated and confined environments in space and how these issues can be countered by good interior design solutions.