Professor Burdett is a London-based urban specialist with a wide portfolio of academic and consultancy activities at an international scale. He leads LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is co-chair of the Council on Urban Initiatives (with UN Habitat) and a Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation,  chaired the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize Jury in 2016-18, was a Council member of the Royal College of Art from 2006 to 2018, and Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale.