Catharine Ward Thompson is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), Director of the OPENspace research centre, and Associate Dean for Research, Knowledge Exchange and Impact for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Her research focuses on inclusive access to outdoor environments, environment-behaviour interactions, landscape design for older people, children and teenagers, and salutogenic environments.
Catharine also has expertise in the history and theory of urban park design and conservation, the history of landscape design, and landscape aesthetics and perception.
As a Landscape Architect, she supports good access to high quality open space that offers opportunities for a rich experience for all.
Catharine was educated at the Universities of Southampton and Edinburgh and has practised as a Landscape Architect in Vancouver, Canada, and in the UK.
She was Head of the School of Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) from 1989-2000 and continues to teach history and theory of Landscape Architecture at all levels. She is joint Programme Director of the Landscape and Wellbeing - MSc programme at ECA and supervises a number of PhD students in areas relevant to her research.
She coordinates the Landscape Architecture PhD programme in ESALA and is joint Programme Director of the Landscape and Wellbeing - MSc programme at ECA.
Catharine is founder and Director of OPENspace, an internationally-recognised research centre based in both the Universities of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt. Established in 2001 with support from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Centre has held four international conferences and attracted over £5m in external funding.
As Director of OPENspace, Catharine has led numerous major research grants and collaborations, including highly-innovative research on ‘GreenHealth’ for the Scottish Government (2008-12) and the award-winning consortium, Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I’DGO); cited by the World Health Organization, I'DGO research has had a significant impact on joined-up policy making and planning for healthy environments.