March 2001 Mohammad al-Asad, director of the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE), was chosen as the Alan K. and Leonarda F. Laing Distinguished Visiting Professor for the 2001 spring semester at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign. As the Laing Professor, al-Asad will deliver two public lectures and teach an eight-week graduate seminar entitled "Defining the Other: Western Explorations of the Architecture of the Islamic World."