Joseph Rykwert was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1926 and emigrated to England in 1939. Rykwert is an architectural historian who has published several books on architecture. He has taught at the University of Essex and the University of Cambridge. He is currently Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture Emeritus and Professor of Art History at University of Pennsylvania and has received a number of grants from the Graham Foundation to aid his work. Rykwert has also been a visiting scholar at various prestigious universities. He has taught a whole generation of architecture historians and theoreticians.