Jason Ur is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University, and Director of its Center for Geographic Analysis.  He specializes in early urbanism, landscape archaeology, and remote sensing, particularly the use of declassified US intelligence imagery.  He has directed field surveys in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran.  He is the author of Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria: The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001 (2010).  Since 2012, he has directed the Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey, an archaeological survey in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.  He is also preparing a history of Mesopotamian cities.

The Center for Geographic Analysis is part of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, which seeks to move the social sciences from thinking about the greatest problems affecting human societies to understanding and solving them. In his capacity as Director for the Center for Geographic Analysis Professor Ur heads a team of staff which administer Harvard-wide geographic information systems (GIS) infrastructure, collect and disseminate spatial datasets, and provide training and consultation in the use of geospatial technologies. The Center for Geographic Analysis has applied their expertise in geographic information systems to create data visualizations that shed new light on issues as varied and important as international border crossings, global oil production and consumption, HIV testing in South Africa, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.