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Thomas Ray Fisher (November 3, 1953 - ) is a professor in the School of Architecture and has directed the Minnesota Design Center in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota since 2015.[1] He is the "Dayton Hudson Land Grant Chair in Urban Design". Prior to holding that endowed chair, he served for 19 years, from 1996 to 2015, as the Dean of the University of Minnesota's College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, which became the College of Design in 2006. Before going to the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus, he served for over 14 years (1982-1996) as an editor of Progressive Architecture magazine in Stamford, Connecticut, becoming its Executive Editor in 1987 and its Editorial Director in 1994. He also served for two years as the Historical Architect for the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office and for over a year as Director of Project Management at Jeter, Cook & Jepson, Architects, in Hartford, Connecticut. He has an undergraduate Architecture degree from Cornell University and a graduate degree in American Studies from Case Western Reserve University.

In 2005, he was listed as the fifth most published architectural writer in the U.S., and the eighth most in the Anglophone world. [2] He has authored or co-edited 11 books, written over 70 book chapters or introductions, co-authored 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, and published 445 articles in professional magazines or major newspapers. His book, Designing Our Way to a Better World was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award for non-fiction in 2017, and his magazine writing won the Minnesota Magazine and Publishing Association award for Best Feature and Best Regular Column in 2010. When editing Progressive Architecture, it won American Business Press Neal Awards in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, and 1996, and was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in 1995.

His teaching has focused on architectural theory and criticism, urban design, design thinking, and ethics. He was inducted into the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture's College of Distinguished Professors in 2019 [3] and he won Alpha Rho Chi's Gold Medal in recognition of his teaching in 2016.[4] Graduate students in the School of Architecture voted him as the "Best Teacher" in 2006 and 2007, and in 2004, the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture granted him a "Research Award" for his scholarship. The Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects also recognized him with a "Special Award for Leadership in Architectural Education" in 2005, as well as President Citations in 2006 and 2010, and President's Awards in 1998 and 1999.

He has delivered over 100 lectures at universities around the world and given over 285 talks at conferences and professional meetings. He has also served on over 55 juries reviewing student work at architecture schools or judging entries to professional competitions. He has been a Principal or Co-Principal Investigator on over $4 million in research since 2005, mainly focused on urban and rural design, community design, "geodesign," and transportation infrastructure.