Dr. Felichism Kabo joins CannonDesign as Research Director

With a doctoral degree in architecture, Felix has spent his career examining how spatial and social contexts shape outcomes in innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship and health. He spent the last 15 years working as a research scientist within the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, leading in-depth explorations as a principal and co-investigator.  

“When we started our national search to fill this position, we weren’t expecting to find someone as completely aligned to the role as Felix,” said Juliet Rogers, Ph.D., our executive director of strategy. “We’re not interested in research just for the sake of it. We’re driven to use it to radically improve design’s impact on human life and society at large. To quote Felix, this type of work is his ‘calling,’ and I’m looking forward to seeing how he elevates our contributions and impact across humanity.” 

As our research director, Felix will focus on advanced project-based research and CannonDesign-initiated studies tackling important societal issues. He’ll bolster our firm’s research ecosystem and our approaches to gathering and deciphering large-scale datasets, including using network analysis, statistical modeling and Big Data methodologies. Most importantly, he’ll partner with our design and consulting teams to translate our research findings into practical solutions that help our clients and their people flourish. 

Felix received his Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture and his Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan. His research has been shared at national and international conferences and published in dozens of papers in leading academic journals, including Environment & Behavior, Research Policy, Nursing Research, Innovation in Aging, Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, Automation in Construction, Academy of Management, Space Syntax Symposium and the Library Assessment Conference.