Tom Becker is a researcher in urban studies. He holds a Master in Social Science with a major in Human Geography (Umeå Universitet, Sweden) and a Bachelor in History (University of London, United Kingdom). He has been a member of the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg since 2008.
He is particularly interested in urban governance. His research focuses primarily on urban policy and urban development both in Europe and in Luxembourg, evidence-based policy making, policy mobilities and policy transfer, energy policies, and spatial planning in Luxembourg and the Greater Region as well as science-policy interfaces.
Between 2008 and 2015 he led the Cellule nationale d’Information pour la Politique Urbaine (CIPU), a national platform for urban policy issues in Luxembourg. He was national contact point for the European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN) and national dissemination point for URBACT until 2016. During that time, he participated as a national expert in a series of European projects such as the Reference Framework for Sustainable European Cities (RFSC), C-Change (Interreg IVB) and Europe 2020 going local (INTERREG IVC). Between 2010 and 2015 he co-organised the Observatoire Belval. He is currently actively involved in the UniGR-Center for Border Studies (UniGR-CBS), and the SolarZukunft (Institute for Advanced Studies) and Energy Neighbourhood Games (PSP Classic, FNR) projects.
He is deputy course director of the Formation continue en Aménagement du territoire (Continuous Training in Spatial Planning- FCAT). His teaching activities include courses in FCAT, the Bachelor in European Culture, the Bachelor in History and the Master in Geography and Spatial Planning. Previously he was also a co-organisor of the interdisciplinary BA course on Film and Popular Culture (Bachelor en Cultures Européennes).