Dr Tom Kemeny is a Visiting Fellow at the LSE III and Senior Lecturer in Economic Development in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary, University of London. 

Tom studies comparative economic development, mainly at the city scale, with interests in the determinants of inequality both within and between places.  Current projects explore such topics as  international and internal migration; specialization patterns; social networks and institutions; and international trade. Cutting across these topics, he is interested in policy efforts to stimulate development. In 2015, his book, The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles was published by Stanford University Press. His work on local social networks won the 2016 Urban Land Institute Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Economic Geography.

Beyond his academic research, Tom has advised governments and NGOs on issues of regional and international development, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the World Bank.

Tom joined Queen Mary in 2017. Prior to his appointment at QMUL, he held positions at the University of Southampton, the London School of Economics, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his PhD in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).