Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
My research centers on the intersections of Urban Planning and Public Health, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and practical application. I deliver transdisciplinary solutions to some of the most compelling challenges of our time, 'housing vulnerability' and 'the health outcomes of citymaking'. My work stands out through the application of Systems Thinking to complex planning issues, particularly housing and its health impacts. I explore the connections between planning and the physical, mental, and social health of communities. My primary focus is on developing resilient cities capable of maintaining their liveability over time, especially amidst disruptive events and shocks.
Dr. Buning is a Senior Lecturer within the tourism discipline in the UQ Business School and the research lead for the UQ Micromobility Research Cluster. His research interests reside at the intersection of physical activity, travel, and events. Within this area, his research agenda is focused on how tourists are physically active as both a driver of tourism behaviour (i.e., active lifestyle sports) and during visitation (i.e., active transport). His research works on active lifestyle sports closely mirrors his passions in active sport tourism for mountain biking, cycling, running, rock climbing, hiking, and more. His work crosses over to active transport through bikeshare, eScooters, and more generally micromobility where he is focused on tourism usage and related impacts.
The outcome of his work enables communities, events, and organizations to efficiently market to and attract visitors, encourage physical activity generally, and improve the related impact to destinations as a form of sustainable tourism. Dr. Buning has worked in the running event industry managing race logistics and continues to work with physical activity focused organizations, events, and communities as a consultant in developing data driven business strategy. He regularly publishes on the topics of sport tourism, event management, and active transport.
Interested in working on research, teaching, or consulting projects? Please get in touch!
Kelly Fielding's research focuses broadly on understanding the social and psychological determinants of environmental sustainability. She seeks to understand environmental decisions and behaviours and to develop communication and behaviour change strategies that can promote greater environmental sustainability. A key focus of her current reseach is on sustainable urban water management, specifically, how we can engage communities with this issue, how we can communicate about new water technologies such as recycled waater, how we can promote water conservation, and how we can understand and communicate about drinking water supplies. Her research is also focused on understanding climate change beliefs as well as identifying ways to address climate change skepticism and inaction. In the past she has conducted research in the areas of sustainable natural resource management, domestic and public place recycling, and environmental activism. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research and has worked with local council, State Government, and catchment management authorities to undertake this research.
Dr. Anthony Halog: A Pioneer in Sustainable Systems and Circular Economy
Dr. Anthony Halog is a leading authority in sustainable systems engineering and circular economy, with over 22 years of post-PhD experience in academia and research. His work focuses on integrating life cycle assessment (LCA), systems thinking, and industrial ecology to advance global sustainability efforts. Dr. Halog has successfully led numerous research projects in industrial ecology and sustainable supply chain management, contributing significantly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and Planetary Boundaries frameworks.
His prolific career includes over 125 publications that have been widely cited and referenced in policy documents by international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union. With a strong commitment to mentoring, Dr. Halog has guided numerous PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, fostering the next generation of sustainability experts. Since completing his PhD, he has examined numerous theses from various universities in Australia, North America, Africa, and Asia. His experience also extends to reviewing several grant proposals for prestigious funding bodies, including the National Science Foundation in the USA and European funding schemes.
Dr. Anthony Halog has received numerous fellowships and awards throughout his career. Notably, he was awarded fellowships from prestigious institutions such as the OECD, DAAD, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). He has held visiting fellowships across the globe, including in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, focusing on areas like Circular Economy, Green Hydrogen Policy, and Life Cycle Assessment. Dr. Halog's accolades also include early career fellowships from NSERC (Canada) and JSPS, along with several international research grants and academic scholarships, reflecting his global recognition in sustainability science and engineering.
Key areas of expertise include circular economy, bioeconomy, LCA, sustainable supply chain management, and the application of operations research and optimization in engineering sustainable systems. Dr. Halog’s interdisciplinary approach and international collaborations have positioned him as a thought leader in transitioning to a low-carbon, circular economy.
Paul specialises in Assessment and Management of Risk and Impact of Socio-Environmental determinants on the Wellbeing of our younger generations across their life span.
His overall vision is about how we use Environmental Health Intelligence to improve decision-making towards delivering more efficient Environmental Health Practices, Services and Solutions for local and regional communities in remote and disadvantaged socio-economic settings.
Within the complex interdisciplinary domains that hold the socio-environmental determinants of wellbeing, Paul’s operational research focuses on how / what interventions would best support communities to prevent, mitigate and adapt to EH risk and impact in rapidly changing environments and climate.
Laurel is a spatial and social planner with over 30 years of experience as a practitioner and an educator/researcher. Laurel has led, designed and participated in over 60 applied research projects. Many of those research projects guide and influence the policies and programs of various Australian Local and State governments and non-Government organisations in the fields of social infrastructure, social planning, urban planning and transport provision.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr. Amrita Kambo is a multi-disciplinary researcher at The University of Queensland. Her work borrows and applies theoretical constructs from concepts such as ‘social acceptance’ and ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO). These modules can be applied to assess the extent to which a business, or industry or technology gains tacit support from the wider public. Additionally, the SLO concept can be applied to understand standards of responsible behaviour, transparency and accountability in a wide range of settings. To date, Amrita has applied the SLO concept to understand community expectations in the context of renewable energy technologies such as hydrogen and biogas under a project funded by the Future Fuels CRC using familiar methods in social sciences such as surveys, interviews, focus groups and participatory research.
Amrita's wider research interests include sustainable cities, urban infrastructure, planning and place-making. These interests are rooted in the Amrita’s early career and experience in architecture and design.
Amrita’s PhD research included a review of influential topics in context of ‘sustainable’ architecture - ‘regenerative’ design and development, biophilic design, ecosystem services, ‘Geodesign’, biomimicry, green infrastructure, positive development, net-zero design and so on.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Jiwon Kim is an Associate Professor in Transport Engineering and the Director of Higher Degree by Research in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. She was a DECRA Fellow (2019-2022) sponsored by the Australian Research Council. She joined UQ in 2014 after completing her PhD research at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Northwestern, she worked at Samsung C&T (Engineering & Construction Group). She received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in civil engineering from Korea University.
Her research interests broadly encompass the application of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to enhance prediction, automation, and insight generation in transportation and urban mobility. She is passionate about developing intelligent autonomous systems that facilitate real-time traffic management and control, mobility service optimization, and traveller support. Her current research explores the potential of deep learning, reinforcement learning, and other cutting-edge AI/ML approaches to achieve these objectives.
Dr Lutfun Nahar Lata is a Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Lutfun's primary research area focuses on the Sociology of work and employment including the gig economy and the future of work.
Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland. Currently, Lutfun is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Queensland.
She has written about gig economy, urban marginality, poverty governance, housing and place-based disadvantage. She is a mixed-methods researcher with extensive experience in conducting and publishing qualitative, quantitative and digital research and working with multidisciplinary teams that include stakeholders from academia, industry and local and central governments.
Lutfun is the author of Spatial Justice, Contested Governance and Livelihood Challenges in Bangladesh (Routledge 2023). Her research has been published in journals such as Current Sociology, The Sociological Review, Sociology Compass, Gender, Work & Organization, Cities, Geographical Research, Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Government Information Quarterly.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Senior Lecturer in Geography
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Dr. Lieske’s overarching research theme is spatial decision support. Topics include city analytics, the costs of sprawl, planning support system theory and implementation as well as regional environmental change. Additional areas of expertise include the effective use of geographic visualisation as a communication and decision support tool.
Professor Yan Liu is a Spatial Data Scientist and a Quantitative Human Geographer, specialising in Geographical Information Science (GIS), urban modelling and geo-simulation, spatial data analytics, and spatially integrated social studies. Her research focuses on developing cutting-edge methods for the collection, analysis and modelling of spatial data in order to provide science-based decision tools and data-driven solutions to a range of social-environmental challenges that we face in our urban and regional space. Her research is multidisciplinary in nature, connecting human geography with geomatic engineering, environmental, social and behavioural sciences and spatial science education through the innovative use of spatial data and technologies, with the overall aim to advance human knowledge and understanding of the spatial evolution of cities, the underpinning driving forces, the interactions between people and the physical and built-environment they live in, along with the planning of resilient cities and communities in response to the global challenges such as population growth, ageing, climate change and global pandemics. In the era of Big Data, the analysis of space, place and people—through the use of spatial (big) data—becomes pivotal in developing a holistic and grassroots understanding of our cities in order to achieve sustainable and healthy living in our urban space. Yan's profound expertise in GIS and spatial data analytics as well as her broad general knowledge across multiple disciplines enables her to tackle these important social-spatial issues necessarily from a multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspective. Yan has recently been appointed to the ARC College of Experts (2022-2024). She also serves in the Scientific Advisory Board of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) (2021-2023), and in the Executive Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Applied Geography Commission (2021-2023), amongst others.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
John Macarthur is Professor of architecture at the University of Queensland where he conducts research and teaches in the history and theory of architecture, and in architectural design. John graduated from the University of Queensland with Bachelor (Hons 1st) and Master of Design Studies degrees (1984) before taking a doctorate at the University of Cambridge (1989). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the founding Director of the research centre for Architecture, Theory, Criticism and History (ATCH) and remains an active member of the Centre. He has previously served as Dean and Head of the School of Architecture at UQ and as a member of the Australian Research Council’s College of Experts. He is a past President and a Life Member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand.
His research in the intellectual history architecture has focused on the conceptual framework of the interrelation of architecture, aesthetics and the arts. His book The Picturesque: architecture, disgust and other irregularities, was published by Routledge in 2007. John has edited and authored a further tenbooks and published over 150 papers including contributions to the journals Assemblage, Transition, Architecture Research Quarterly, Oase and the Journal of Architecture. John's book Is Architecture Art? an introduction to the aesthetics of architecture, will be published by Bloomsbury in October 2024.
Memberships
Fellow, Australian Academy of Humanities Fellow; Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences; Life Member, Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Professor Paul Memmott is an anthropologist and architect and for some decades was the Director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre at the University of Queensland (School of Architecture and Institute for Social Science Research). This has now become the Aboriginal Environments Research Collaborative (AERC) within the School of Architecture, Design and Planning. The AERC has provided and continues to provide an applied research focus on a range of topics in relation to Indigenous populations, including institutional architecture, vernacular architecture, housing, crowding, governance, well-being, homelessness, family violence and social planning for communities.
Paul was the first full-time architectural-anthropological consultant in Australia, being principal of a research consultancy practice in Aboriginal projects during 1980 to 2008. His research interests encompass Aboriginal sustainable housing and settlement design, Aboriginal access to institutional architecture, Indigenous constructs of place and cultural heritage, vernacular architecture, social planning in Indigenous communities, cultural change and architectural anthropology.
Paul’s scholarly research output includes over 300 publications (including 11 books and monographs), 215 applied research reports and 40 competitive grants. He has supervised over 50 postgraduate and honours students and has won a number of prestigious teaching awards in Indigenous education (including an Australian Award for University Teaching – AAUT). One of his books, titled 'Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: Aboriginal Architecture of Australia', received three national book awards in 2008 (Edition 1), including the prestigious Stanner Award from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and then upon the publication of an expanded edition 2 in 2022, another three national book awards.
Paul also has extensive professional anthropological experience in Aboriginal land rights claims, Native Title claims and associated court work since 1980. He has presented evidence and been examined in a variety of Australian courts as an expert witness on a cross-section of Indigenous issues, in addition to the Native Title work.
Awards
AIA Neville Quarry Award, 2015
Best Exhibit, Australian Architectural Exhibit, Venice Biennale 2018 (Team led by Baracco + Wright Architects, Melbourne)
Memberships
Life Member, Academy of Social Sciences (Australia)
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Tim O’Rourke's research investigates past and present applications of cross-cultural design across different building types and settings. Such projects often require multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of architectural problems, informed by the histories of buildings and the people who use them. A Discovery Project on healthcare architecture combined different research methods to ask if design can improve the experience and participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in hospitals and clinics.
Tim's current research focuses on the design and social histories of Indigenous housing from the 1950s assimilation era to the 2000s. These studies seek to answer questions about design intentions and the origins, development and evaluation of architectural methods that improved public housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. His PhD examined the history and use of Aboriginal building traditions in the Wet Tropics Region of Queensland. He has contributed to a range of research projects related to Indigenous housing, settlements and landscapes. Research topics include self-constructed dwellings and vernacular building technologies, cultural tourism, adaption to climate change and housing sustainability. Results from these studies have been published in technical reports, conference proceedings, journals and book chapters.
Tim is a registered architect, having worked in architectural practices in Brisbane and Sydney, and he maintains an interest in timber construction and joinery. As a sole practitioner, he has designed residential projects and worked on a range of building types for Aboriginal communities. He teaches architectural technology and design and has offered a range of research topics in the Master of Architecture program.
Memberships
Fellow Australian Institute of Architects
Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
I am Associate Professor of urban planning. Since joining the University of Queensland in 2015, my research has focused on various aspects of the built environment, including urban design, transport, and housing - in both the Global North and South. I approach my work from a feminist perspective, considering the role of gender in the city. My academic journey has been international in nature. A native of Albania, over the years I have held guest teaching and/or research positions in Austria (UWien), Canada (UBC), Chile (PUC), Italy (IUAV), the Netherlands (UvA), Oman (GUTech), and Vietnam (UTC), and provided consultancy services to various United Nations agencies including the UNDP, UNESCAP, and UN Habitat. My research has been funded by domestic and international granting bodies, including the Australian Research Council. Overall, I have attracted $500,000 in external funding and $100,000 in internal funding. My latest books are Trophy Cities: A Feminist Perspective on New Capitals (Edward Elgar, 2021) and Alternative Planning History and Theory (Routledge, 2023). Alongside my academic research, I also publish broadly in non academic outlets, including The Conversation, and regularly give interviews on national and international media. Prior to joining academia, I worked in urban design and planning in California. In addition to English and Albanian, I speak Italian, Spanish, and French. For a full list of my publications, click the 'Works' tab, which displays results live from UQ eSpace, or visit my external profiles listed on the left panel.
Qualifications
Postdoctoral Residency, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft, the Netherlands. 2012-2014.
PhD in Urban Planning, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tirana, Albania. 2007-2010.
Visiting PhD student, University of California at Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs, Los Angeles, Ca, USA. 2009.
Master in Urban Planning, University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning, Cincinnati, Oh, USA. Full scholarship award. 2003-2005.
Visiting Master student, Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Architecture (St Lucas), Brussels, Belgium. Recipient of US government FIPSE grant. 2004.
Professional Degree in Architecture, Polytechnic University of Tirana, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tirana, Albania. 1998-2003.
Service Roles (UQ)
Member of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (Faculty of EAIT) [current]
Lead of Equity, Diversity of Inclusion (School of ADP) [current]
Chair of CALD Working Group (Faculty of EAIT) [current]
Member of RAP Network [current]
Member of Executive Committee (SEES) [past]
Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (SEES) [past]
Deputy Chair of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (Faculty of Science) [past]
Member of Early and Mid-Career Researchers Reference Group (Faculty of Science) [past]
Member of Research Committee (SEES) [past]
Member of Health, Safety and Wellness Committee (SEES) [past]
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Marguerite Renouf BSc(Hons)/BA, PhD (Env Man) UQ is a Research Fellow at the School of Chemical Engineering's Water-Energy-Carbon Research Group (www.chemeng.uq.edu.au/water-energy-carbon).
She has worked in environmental research at UQ for 20 years, with a particular interest in the environmental evaluation of production systems and urban systems using environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), urban metabolism evaluation and eco-efficiency analysis. She is interested how we can produce and consume with less drain on the environment.
Since completing a PhD in 2011, she has driven a stream of research that evaluates the environmental performance of agri-based product supply chains and products (bio-fuels, bio-materials, food, beverages) using LCA. She has collaborated with industries and researchers in Australia and overseas to develop LCA tools for industry to support the identification of more environmentally-friendly production practices and processes.
Prior to this, her research was concerned with eco-efficiency in manufacturing industries (food processing, metal industries, retail and tourism sectors) and was a long-term contributor to UQ’s Working Group for Cleaner Production (now operating as the Eco-Efficienc Group), and its Director for three years (2009-2012).
Currently, Marguerite is a lead researcher with the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, develop methods and metrics for quantifiying the water water-sensitive performance of Australian cities, using urban metabolism approaches. In this work she collaborates cloesely with urban planners, water manager and architects.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Associate Professor
School of the Environment
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Sonia Roitman is an urban sociologist and planner by training. She is currently the Planning Program Lead. She joined the University of Queensland in 2013 following previous academic, research and professional appointments at University College London (UK), School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS, UK), Free University Berlin (Germany), Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina), Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Técnica (CONICET-Argentina) and Secretaría de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable, Gobierno de Mendoza (Argentina). Before moving to Australia, Sonia lived and worked in Argentina, United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and Uganda. Her contributions to the field of development planning and urban sociology include influential research on urban inequalities and how they manifest in cities. Her research interests include housing and poverty alleviation policies; the role of grassroots in the production of space; and, gated communities, segregation and planning instruments in global South cities. Her current research locations are Indonesia and Uganda. She served in the Board of the RC21 Committee (Research Committee of the Sociology of Urban and Regional Development, International Sociological Association) from 2014 to 2023 and was a joint-coordinator of the RC21 Doctoral School in Delhi in 2019.
I lead the 'Urban Inequalities Research Group'. We are a group of researchers working on understanding how urban inequalities are manifested and reproduced in cities. The topics we examine include: land tenure and collective action in Cambodia; informal livelihoods and the use of public space in the Philippines and Bangladesh; housing policies in Indonesia; land acquision processes in Indonesia; displacement and livelihoods in Myanmar; social justice, planning and sanitation infrastructure provision in Indonesia; the impacts of gated communities; the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Uganda; informal settlements and land tenure in Indonesia; social housing and segregation in Brazil; inclusionary planning instruments in Indonesia; and women empowerment and governance.
Teaching responsibilities
PLAN1101 Teamwork and negotiation for planners (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2021 and 2022)
PLAN3005/7121 Community planning and participation (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2019 to date)
PLAN3200/7200 Understanding development complexities: Indonesia fieldtrip course (Course coordinator and lecturer - 2015 to date)
PLAN4001/7120 Planning theory (Guest lecturer 2014-2019)
Vigya is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia
She has several years of experience in applied research across domestic and international mining and energy sectors. Specifically, her interests are in understanding how the presence (or absence) of resources impacts development outcomes in host communities and regions. In her current role, she is leading the Centre’s work on fossil fuel transitions, particularly looking at the social, political and economic impacts of coal phase-out in India, China, and Australia.
Vigya also coordinates and is the primary lecturer for the undergraduate course on Humanitarian Engineering, offered to students in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT). She led the design and delivery of this course, first introduced at UQ in 2020.
She advises several PhD students on topics including energy transitions, just transitions, mine closure, and energy and development.
She serves on the Editorial Boards of Energy Research and Social Science and Sustainability Science. In 2023, she was invited to join the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), established at COP27. CEET is an Independent Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General, to contribute to their goal to build a coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and to support the United Nations to achieve global decarbonisation goals by mid-century.
Prior to joining CSRM, she was based at the Energy and Poverty Research Group (EPRG), an interdisciplinary pan-UQ initiative established to support positive social, environmental and health outcomes vital for sustainable and productive livelihoods in energy-impoverished communities globally. Vigya led this group's engagement and research in India, a priority country for both UQ and the EPRG.
Initially trained as an engineer, her PhD in social sciences has allowed her a deep appreciation for interdisciplinary thinking and practice. She continues to build on these skills and undertake wide-ranging research, research management, training, and engagement to contribute to long-term positive change in the energy and resources sector.
Dr Short has undertaken sociological research in a range of fields including impacts of natural disasters, health behaviour, formal and informal welfare relations, public-private partnerships, vulnerability, gender and development. Increasingly, her research has been focused upon household vulnerabilities and the political economy of livelihoods – around housing access in the Australian context, and microcredit and migration as major livelihood strategies in the developing world. Her recent research highlights the importance of understanding the impacts of shifting market-state-community relations in changing policy environments of the first world and globalising contexts of the developing world.
Dr Short has led a number of Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) projects, focused principally upon the housing experiences of vulnerable households in the private rental sector in Australia, and, working with postgraduate and research higher degree students, has supervised a range of projects focused upon gender, vulnerability and economic change in development contexts. These include, for example, studies of ethnic minority women’s participation in development projects in Central Vietnam, graduate transitions to new work environments in post Doi Moi Vietnam, the impacts of microcredit upon women’s empowerment and poverty in Bangladesh, and a study of the drivers and outcomes of international migration and remittances in two villages in Bangladesh.
Throughout her career, Dr Short has engaged in applied research with a policy focus, including major studies commissioned by the Commonwealth Government Social Welfare Commission, the Queensland Department of Transport, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), and for the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). She has a wealth of experience in supervising and mentoring early career academics, including research higher degree candidates, and in managing teams of junior and mid-career research staff in multi-site projects.