Dr. Buning is a Senior Lecturer in the Tourism discipline at the UQ Business School and Research Lead of the UQ Micromobility Research Cluster. He is recognised as one of Australia’s leading voices on micromobility, e-mobility and global scholar for cycling tourism. His research focuses on active living, tourism systems, and destination development, with a particular attention to both residents and visitors.His research agenda examines how tourists and residents engage in physical activity both as a driver of tourism behaviour and community health (e.g., active lifestyle sports, sports club participation) and as a feature of destination mobility systems (e.g., active transport).
His work on active transport investigates how bikeshare, e-scooters, and micromobility more generally enable healthier, more active, and more sustainable communities for residents and visitors. This work directly informs public policy and industry strategy. His research on active lifestyle sports contributes to scholarship in active sport tourism, including mountain biking, cycling, running, rock climbing, and hiking. Research outcomes have contributed to improved economic performance, increased visitor dispersal, reduced congestion pressures, enhanced public health outcomes, and strengthened community wellbeing in destination contexts through sustainable transport and active tourism strategies.
Dr. Buning has worked extensively with active transport providers, sporting organisations, and state and local governments across Australia and the United States. He regularly consults on data-driven strategy development for active mobility systems, events, and community-based tourism initiatives. His work regularly appears in leading tourism, sport, and transport journals and popular press outlets around micromobility, active transport, sport tourism, and event management.
Are you a government, industry or an academic interested in collaborating on research or teaching projects to get people moving? Please get in touch
Affiliate of Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation
Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Deputy Head of School of Civil Engineering
School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Professor & Chair of Transport Eng
School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr. Mark Hickman is the TAP Chair and Professor of Transport Engineering within the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. Prof. Hickman has taught courses and performed research in public transit planning and operations, travel demand modelling, and traffic engineering. His areas of research interest and expertise include public transit planning and operations, urban transportation planning and modelling, and the development of sustainable transport innovations and policies.
Dr Lisa Ruhanen (PhD, GCEd, BBusHons) is a Professor in Tourism and the Deputy Head of School (Graduate Education, Tourism and Marketing) with the The University of Queensland Business School. She has undertaken more than 35 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas in the areas of Indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism and policy, planning and governance. Lisa has more than 150 academic publications and in 2017 she and colleagues co-edited a book on Indigenous Tourism: Cases from Australia and New Zealand.
Lisa jas taught in the areas of sustainable and responsible tourism, ethics, and tourism in developing countries. For more than a decade, she has worked closely with United Nations Tourism on a variety of research projects and undertook a secondment to the organisation's headquarters in Madrid. She is currently an Advisory Board member and auditor for the UN Tourism TedQual accreditation program. Lisa is actively engaged with a range of start-up Indigenous tourism businesses and tourism organisations in Australia using her research expertise to explore visitor demand, market opportunities and product development strategies and has led research and consultancy studies for the Federal and State governments in Australia on Indigenous tourism, including the inaugural ‘Queensland Indigenous Tourism Strategy’. She is currently the co-lead for the First Nations Tourism Research Hub, an initiative of the Queensland First Nations Tourism Council.
Dr Aaron Tkaczynski is a Senior Lecturer in both tourism and events in the School of Business in the Faculty of Business, Economics & Law. He has been employed at the University of Queensland in a research capacity since 2009. Since 2021 he has also had an extra-ordinary Associate Professor position in the Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society (TREES) department at North-West University in Potchefstroom in South Africa. Aaron's research expertise and experience stems from market segmentation modelling. He publishes within journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Annals of Tourism Research and the Journal of Travel Research. Dr Tkaczynski is also very interested in tourism seasonality, eco-certification, nature-based tourism, social marketing and small-scale festivals. Aaron is also a Christian and actively researches and volunteers for many Christian orientated events such as festivals and leadership conferences. Prior to academia, Aaron was employed in local government (Hervey Bay City Council, Redland Shire Council and the Local Government Association of Queensland).
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Weiming Zhao is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2026 - 2029) in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland.
A domestic (Australian citizens or permanent residents) PhD position is availble: "Learning-based control strategies for personalised and socially aware automated vehicles".
His research sits at the intersection of robotics, human behaviour, and infrastructure, focusing on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and the interactions between Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and human drivers in mixed traffic. Using control theory and machine learning, including Model Predictive Control and Mathematica-based modelling, he develops trajectory planning solutions for CAVs at intersections and highway merging areas, aiming to improve safety, efficiency, and energy use in both urban and highway settings.
Dr Zhao completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, followed by a postdoctoral position at Aalto University. He joined UQ as a postdoc in 2022, before commencing his DECRA fellowship in 2026. His current DECRA project, Make Automated Vehicles Personalised and Socialised, investigates how control methods for automated vehicles can align with human driver behaviour to build trust.
