Our Research Team
Meet our outstanding team of researchers
Project Management Team
Josh is an environmental scientist and urban design professional with a national profile as a consultant, researcher and communicator in urban sustainability. His approach is leadership through demonstration by engaging in projects that provide opportunities to test innovation, build capacity and share learnings with stakeholders and the wider community. Josh’s research expertise spans water sensitive design, low carbon housing and sustainable urban development and he has authored a number of academic publications, industry guides, factual video series and popular books in these fields. He is Dean of Sustainable Futures in the Faculty of Humanities where he supports learning and teaching, research and partnership activities. Josh’s unique skill set and interdisciplinary approach to practice, research, policy and communication has been acknowledged by numerous industry awards including the Australian Water Association WA Water Professional of the Year and the Planning Institute of Australia WA Planning Champion.
Aimee Smith is a sustainability and climate change researcher, communicator and practitioner who has worked at the intersection of climate change, sustainability, creativity and community for 20 years – across government, business, not-for-profits and education. With a Masters in Sustainability and Climate Policy, Aimee is particularly passionate about the power of culture, storytelling, community building and radical collaboration in creating a more just, sustainable and beautiful future for all of us. At Curtin Aimee leads the delivery of the Leadership in Sustainability Unit as part of the Masters in Environment and Climate Emergency; is the inaugural Planet Positive Learning Community Coordinator; and is the Communications Manager for the RACEfor2030 Pathways to Net Zero Precincts research project.
Catalina is a passionate architect with more than 10 years of experience in commercial and residential development. Her journey has fostered a keen interest in sustainability, climate change issues and design innovation, which encouraged her to move to Australia to pursue a master’s degree in Environment and Climate Emergency. She believes architects play a pivotal role in shaping a more sustainable built environment by incorporating sustainable design strategies, advocating for policy change, and promoting resilient communities. Australia has further developed her passion and inquisitiveness for urban design and sustainable transport.
Urban Design Pathway Team
Yongze Song leads a Geospatial Analysis and AI team, maintaining strong industry networks and delivering industry-driven research projects about sustainable infrastructure management using emerging technologies. He developed more than 16 new geospatial methods and 8 R software packages with over 120,000 downloads for understanding geographical and spatial data. He published 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, including 7 highly-cited papers. He is a recipient of more than ten awards at international and national levels, such as the Geospatial World 50 Rising Stars, the Global Top 10 Young Scientist Award, World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, and the Australian National Location Data First Prize. He is an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (Q1), and GIScience & Remote Sensing (Q1).
Dr Shengping (Stephanie) Li is a Lecturer at Curtin University. Before this, she was awarded a CSIRO Early Research Career fellowship and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at CSIRO, contributing to the “Towards Net Zero” project in Australia. She received her PhD degree at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Li’s research covers Sustainable Construction, Decarbonisation of the Built Environment, Building Energy Efficiency, Material Flow Analysis, and Life Cycle Assessment. Her involvement extends to nine research projects funded by a variety of institutions across International Energy Agency, Australia, Singapore, and China. Dr. Li has served as a scientific and organizing committee member at international conferences and has been invited to present her research at international conferences. Moreover, she is a member of Engineers Australia, the International Society for Industrial Ecology, and Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Faz Ikram has accumulated more than 17 years of experience in the financial services and capital markets industry and has held leadership positions in well-established financial institutions in Malaysia and Japan specializing in construction and building materials. He has drafted policy papers, parliamentary briefings and research notes for Transit Oriented Development, trackless trams, high speed railway, and last mile connection for Ministry of Federal Territories, Ministry of International Trade & Investment and Ministry of Works in Malaysia within the role of a Senior Aide to Minister and Associate Director/Senior Analyst. Prior to assuming the role as PhD candidate in Curtin University, he was the Group Finance Director of JT Technology Asia Pacific and Junex Asia in Tokyo. He is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, United Kingdom, Certified Practising Accountant of CPA Australia and Chartered Member of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport of United Kingdom.
Mazdak is an accomplished Environmental Engineer and expert in Spatial Analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Mazdak’s academic and professional journey is distinguished by his strategic use of spatial intelligence to address complex environmental engineering challenges, bridging the gap between traditional urban planning and modern ecological demands. In his role with Pathways to Net Zero Precincts, Mazdak is dedicated to adapting and enriching GIS methodologies and simulation capabilities to support the strategic deployment of the ET-Oz model. His work includes customizing spatial data to reflect Australian urban dynamics, employing advanced spatial analysis tools to improve model simulations, and fostering collaborative efforts that integrate cutting-edge urban planning and sustainable development practices.
Certification Pathway Team
Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Peter is an academic who has written 20 books and over 350 papers on sustainable cities with a global reputation and has worked to deliver his ideas in all levels of government. Peter has worked in local government as an elected councillor in Fremantle, in Western Australia’s state government as an advisor to three Premiers and in the Australian Government on the Board of Infrastructure Australia and the Prime Minister’s Cities Reference Group. He is the Co-ordinating Lead Author for the UN’s IPCC on Transport. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport particularly for his work in saving and rebuilding Perth’s rail system. In 2018/19 he was the WA Scientist of the Year. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal Sustainable Earth.
Angelina is an Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Leader who is a PhD candidate exploring net zero precinct certification pathways for different urban fabrics in Australia to complement experience implementing ESG programs and projects, and an in-depth understanding of industry best practices and global regulatory environments. Angelina designed and established the ESG strategy, function and team structure for the Crown Resorts Group, and managed their ESG compliance obligations. These included National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting, NABERS ratings, Climate Active reporting, Green Star reporting, single use plastic bans in WA, Victoria & NSW, the Australian Packaging Covenant and Modern Slavery reporting requirements. Angelina is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand has more than 20 years of experience in tax across various jurisdictions around the world.
Consumer Energy Resources and Grid Integration Pathway Team
As Director of Curtin Institute for Energy Transition, Peta brings over thirty years of experience working in senior management and research including having established and led the Science into Society Group (SISG) within CSIRO’s Division of Earth Science and Resource Engineering. Well known for her expertise in the energy field, communication and stakeholder engagement and technology assessment. She has been researching public attitudes to climate and energy technologies for the past decade and grew up on a farm in the south west of WA where her love of nature grew from a young age.
Dean bridges the gap between research and the market, specialising in digital disruption across sectors as diverse as transport, telecommunications, media, health and transport. He co-founded telecommunications vendor QPSX and directed the CSIRO Lab which earlier created fast Wi-Fi. He also co-founded the Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre and was appointed Director Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics at National ICT Australia (now CSIRO Data 61). Dean later joined Telstra as Chief Technology Officer for Products, working across many parts of Telstra with a special interest in future transport technologies and was also appointed Chief Transport Strategist.
Dr Himanshu Agrawal serves as a Senior Lecturer at School of Electrical Engineering, Computing, and Mathematical Science, Curtin University specialising in networking and security. He earned his PhD from RMIT University, and has focused his career dedicated to advancing knowledge in networking, Internet of Things (IoT), applied AI/ML, Simulation and Modelling and Privacy Preservation.
Dr Agrawal’s academic journey included a Visiting Associate Professorship at IoT Lab, Swinburne University of Technology (2019-2020) collaborating on a CRC-P with Prof. Dimitrios Georgakopoulos. Since joining Curtin in 2020, he has been recognised as a multi-disciplinary research investigator, contributing to research grants totalling to $3.5 million including significant projects like RACE 2030-NZP ($2.8 M) and Healthy Connections($607K). His research work is cited over 1000 times (Google Scholar, h-index 18) in more than 60 papers alongside a patent (Grant-Pending) for ‘Drown Support System’. He also serves as an editorial board member with MDPI and Frontiers in IoT journals.
Governance Practices Pathway Team
Margaret has been working as a sustainability consultant, manager, policy adviser, lecturer and researcher for over 20 years in the private and public sectors. She has led and been involved in sustainability projects in areas such as corporate sustainability, urban land use and transport planning, infrastructure, regenerative agriculture, symbiotic and biological nitrogen fixation, sustainability and SMEs, climate change policy, greenhouse gas emissions reporting, behaviour change, water policy, energy policy, active transport, environmental regulation, low carbon living, waste, and economics.
Margaret designs and facilitates participatory processes that enable people to solve problems collaboratively. She has been a sustainability lecturer and researcher at Western Australian universities since 1998.
Annolies Truman (BA, DipEd, MATS, MCouns) is a counsellor, educator and environmentalist with a long history in sustainability and person-centred engagement. She has worked as a Waste Reduction Officer at South Sydney Council, facilitated community education in sustainability and taught permaculture to high school students and adults. Annolies has worked with First Nations, CALD and other diverse populations. She has managed teams in educational and health-care settings. She has designed and delivered a staff wellbeing program in a tertiary hospital. As part of her counselling practice, Annolies runs eco-distress workshops and offers group and individual counselling for people grappling with the ecological crisis and supervision for those working in the area. Annolies is involved in community environmental initiatives, including Nannine Common community garden and Beacon Net Zero. She is researching NZP governance, drawing on lived experience and concepts of user engagement and energy democracy.
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Serious climate reporting means serious climate business
Our Partners
Meet the team of industry, government and academic partners collaborating on this research project
Curtin’s support includes the CISCO Curtin Centre for Networks