Luis Santos y Ganges (Zamora 1962) is associate professor on the area of Urban and Territorial Management at the School of Architecture of the University of Valladolid. He has been director of the jounral “Ciudades” since June 2014.

He holds a degree in Geography from the University of Valladolid (1988), a postgraduate diploma in Land Transport from the Complutense University of Madrid (1989, III General Course of the Spanish Railways Foundation), and a specialisation in Land Management from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1990, XV Postgraduate Course in Land Management from Fundicot) , a diploma in the postgraduate course on urban planning from the Autonomous University of Madrid (1991, Pablo de Olavide Centre for Urban Studies), a PhD in urban planning from the University of Valladolid (2002), with a thesis on the railway in the city, and a PhD in history from the University of Burgos (2015), with a thesis on industrial history.

Railway worker for Renfe between 1979 and 2000, professional geographer between 1991 and 2003, and lecturer and researcher in urban planning and land use planning at the University of Valladolid from 1999 to the present.

Regular researcher with the Recognised Research Group on Territorial and Urban Planning at the University of Valladolid and collaborating researcher with the Recognised Research Group on Geographical Studies and Territorial Analysis (GEOTER) at the University of Burgos, the Urban Studies Group (GeUrb)‘ at the Federal University of Paraíba and the ’National Institute of Science and Technology of the Network of Researchers on Medium-Sized Cities (INCT/ReCiMe)” in Brazil.

Although he has worked on a wide range of issues, from land use planning, spatial planning and landscape to social housing and industrial heritage, he specialises in the interrelationship between railways and cities and in urban and railway history.

He currently chairs the Library Committee of the School of Architecture and is a member of the Inter-Centre Committee of the University of Valladolid. He has been a member of the faculty and governing council of the University and the board of the School of Architecture. He has been director of the University Institute of Urban Planning at the University of Valladolid from December 2020 to January 2025, secretary of the Department of Urban Planning and Architectural Representation from 2016 to 2020, and secretary of the University Institute of Urban Planning from 2007 to 2016.

He has been a visiting professor at the Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris, teaching on the master’s degree course in urban planning. He has taught master’s and doctoral courses at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Xochimilco Campus (Mexico City), the Ibero-American University, Puebla (Puebla, Mexico), the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes (Aguascalientes, Mexico), the University of Castilla – La Mancha (Ciudad Real), the National University of the Littoral (Santa Fe, Argentina) and the University of Burgos. He has undertaken long research stays at the University of Liège (Belgium) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), as well as short Erasmus stays at the universities of Paris La Villette, Paris Belleville, Paris Est – Val-de-Marne, Porto, Nantes, Lille and Bergamo.

He is a member of the following associations: Interprofessional Association of Land Use Planning (FUNDICOT), Spanish Association of Urban Planning Technicians (AETU), Association of Urban Planning and Land Use Planning Teachers (AUOT), Ibero-American Association of Urban History (AIHU), Iberian Association of Railway History (ASIHF), International Association for the History of Railways (AIHC), The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) and TICCIH Spain, and Spanish Association of Geography (AGE) and its Urban Geography Working Group (GGU).