Ken Tamminga is a distinguished professor of landscape architecture and is on the faculty of the Ecology graduate degree program. Prior to his appointment at Penn State, he was a landscape architect and planner practicing with the Toronto-based firm of Hough Stansbury Woodland.

Some of Tamminga's notable projects include Don Valley Brickworks, Don River restoration (“Bringing Back the Don”), and the Rouge Park, a 5,000-plus-acre urban wildlands.

He served as interim department head in 2000, was a two-time Heinz Faculty Fellow with the Center for Water Stewardship, and was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, devising the strategy for Pittsburgh’s seminal Nine-Mile Run project.

Tamminga's urban research focuses on landscape regeneration, riparian urbanism, novel ecosystems, and engaged design with at-risk communities. He has expertise in interdisciplinary action-research, including resilience-building with communities facing climate change and globalization impacts in south Asia and sub-Sahara Africa. Recently, he's been exploring convivial greenstreets in European cities.

Tamminga uses photo technology to aid with landscape analysis and representation (gigapan, heli-kite, participatory video). Courses that he regularly leads include Planting Methods, Community Design, Landscape Film, and the award-winning Pittsburgh Studio.