Many congratulations to Iain Robinson, who successfully defended his thesis today. It was passed without revisions. The title was ‘Transience and durability in Japanese urban space’ and it provided a detailed reading of urban transformation in Chiba-shi. The examiners were Nick Phelps (UCL) and Kathrin Hörschelmann (Durham).

Iain was supervised by Gordon MacLeod, myself and initially by Kurt Iveson (now at University of Sydney). Iain undertook this research part-time while living in Japan.

Iain was my last remaining PhD student – I’ve not taken any new ones on while I’ve been on this research fellowship. I’ll be looking forward to working with new students in autumn 2011.