Themes & Speakers
Program Outline
There will be one program across two sites, Melbourne and Brisbane, grouped into broad themes, with different themes being presented in Melbourne and Brisbane.
MELBOURNE
WELCOME
Prof. Dick Strugnell, Pro Vice Chancellor (Graduate Research), University of Melbourne
Dick Strugnell is a microbiologist with an interest in vaccines against bacterial infections. Dick's interest in graduate training in part stemmed from his work in the CRC for Vaccine Technology where he was part of the Education Advisory Committee, a body that provided great extension opportunities, including IP training and funded work experience, to some 90 PhD students over 13 years. He joined the Postgraduate Scholarships Committee and then the School of Graduate Studies as an Associate Dean in 2005.
Prof. John Langford, Director, Uniwater
Professor Langford chose water as a career field because, he says, it is one where it is possible to make a strategic contribution. Internationally recognised for his expertise in water resource and catchment management and urban and irrigation water supply and research management, he plays a prominent role in the wider water debate, including speaking at major internationally sponsored forums. He brings to the University a career expertise in the water industry spanning more than three decades, along with a deep affection for the natural environment and a desire to see it used sustainably.
THEME 1: The Built Environment of Cities
Cities are often defined by their visible, constructed components: buildings, roads and parks. How can these built components contribute to or detract from sustainability? What is the role of design in creating sustainable cities? We build our cities for both functional and aesthetic reasons, and this theme encompasses Urban Planning, Architecture and Urban Landscapes.
Guest
speaker: Prof Tom Kvan, Dean of Architure, University of
Melbourne
Professor Kvan's education and practice reflect a lifelong experience of different cultures, countries and organisations (he speaks several languages including Cantonese). He also has a strong interest in digital environments, facilities management, collaborative design and learning activities – his current research focusing on the role of technologies in supporting distal collaborative design and learning. Professor Kvan has initiated and run Virtual Design Studios and joint studios with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of British Columbia, and has published more than 100 papers including on research into aspects of digital design and practice. Professor Kvan is a former Dean of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Sydney .
Guest speaker: Professor Rob Adams
Professor Rob Adams' decades of seminal work as an architect and urban designer, including his role in revitalising the face of Melbourne, was recognised in 2007 with an Order of Australia (AM) for services to urban design, town planning and architecture. In 2008 he became the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year at the Banksia Awards. As Director of Design and Culture at the City of Melbourne, He continues to champion the arts and environmental sustainability as part of the city's development platform into the 21st century.
THEME 2: Cities as Ecosystems
Cities provide habitat for a diverse collection of native and exotic flora and fauna. Urban environments provide ecosystem services such as climate moderation and water and air filtration. Cities are often focal points for species conservation and landscape restoration. What roles can a greater understanding of our urban ecosystems play in making our cities more sustainable?
Guest speaker: Assoc. Prof. Mark J. McDonnell, Director of the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology 
Assoc. Professor McDonnell has a PhD from Rutgers University in Ecology and held several academic, research and administrative positions in the States before moving to Australia in 1998 to become the foundation Director of the Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology. Over the last 20 years his research has focused on understanding the structure and function of ecological systems in urban and suburban environments, and the conservation of biodiversity in cities and towns. The books and papers he has published on urban ecology have resulted from interactions with scholars from a diversity of fields including geography, history, landscape architecture and planning as well as resource managers, policy makers and teachers. He pioneered the use of gradient analysis in the ecological study of cities and towns around the world. Throughout his career he has been concerned with bringing high-quality ecological data and the understanding of basic ecological processes to bear on the problems of conservation and management of biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the creation and expansion of human settlements.
THEME 3: Cities for People
Most of the world's people now live in cities, a much higher proportion than at any time during human history. At the same time, globalisation and climate change are causing rapid changes in our cities. How is our social and cultural fabric responding to these challenges? Are our cities sustainable from the perspectives of identity, diversity and inequality?
Guest speaker: Prof. Ruth Fincher, Interim Director
of the Melbourne Sustainable Institute, University of Melbourne.
Prof. Fincher has research and teaching interests in the urban outcomes of immigration and multiculturalism, diversity and difference in cities, gender issues, inequality and locational disadvantage. Ruth Fincher is Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne, and has been Dean of Architecture, Building and Planning and has written a number of books on inequality and diversity in cities.
THEME 4: Art in Cities
Art helps us understand ourselves and the world around us. As the world has become more urbanised, so has art. What role can art play in revealing the sustainability (or otherwise) of cities? How can art help us adapt to a changing world?
Guest
Speaker: Dr Chris McAuliffe , Director of the Ian Potter Museum
of Art, University of Melbourne .
Dr McAuliffe has a long involvement in Austral ian contemporary art as a curator, histor ian and commentator. Dr McAuliffe has researched and written extensively in the area of contemporary art, and on the relationship of art to sport, popular music, suburbia and Australian culture. He will give us a guided tour of the Ian Potter Museum, on the University campus.
THEME 5: Cities as water catchments
Water availability has been identified as one of major challenges of the 21 st century. How can cities become more sustainable and more self-reliant in their use of water under a changing climate?
Guest
Speaker: Associate
Prof. Tony Wong , The Institute for Sustainable Water Resources, Monash
University . Tony has particular expertise and research interest in integrated
environmental management of water systems, and the design of stormwater
treatment elements such as gross pollutant traps, constructed wetlands and
bio-retention systems.
BRISBANE
WELCOME
Prof. Zlatko Skrbis, Dean of Graduate Research, University
of Melbourne
Professor Skrbis was appointed Dean of the UQ Graduate School on 15 April 2009. He was previously Professor of Sociology and Deputy Head of the School of Social Science. He joined UQ in 2001 from the Queensland University of Technology, having gained his PhD from Flinders University as an IPRS scholar. Professor Skrbis brings to the role experience as Chair of the School Postgraduate Studies Committee; co-Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences with specific responsibility for the RHD portfolio; and member of the University's Research Higher Degrees Committee. Zlatko is a very successful teacher and advisor of RHD candidates. As a sociologist with an international reputation in the fields of migration, nationalism and social theory, Professor Skrbis has been Vice-President of The Australian Sociological Association and is currently Vice-President of the ISA Research Committee on Racism, Nationalism and Ethnic Relations.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof. Hugh Possingham, FAA, Director of the Ecology Centre,
University of Queensland
After attaining a Rhodes Scholarship Hugh completed his doctorate at Oxford University in 1987. Postdoctoral research periods followed at Stanford University and ANU (as a QEII Fellow). In 1991 he took a Lectureship in Applied Mathematics at UofA and was appointed Foundation Chair of the Department of Environmental Science in 1995. In July 2000 Hugh escaped southern Australia to direct The Ecology Centre at The University of Queensland. Hugh is a Federation Fellow (2006-2010) and Director of a Commonwealth Environment Research facility. The lab includes six postdoctoral researchers and fourteen PhD students working on empirical and theoretical aspects of biodiversity conservation http://www.uq.edu.au/spatialecology/.
Professor John Quiggan, Director of Rist &
Sustainable Management Group, University of Queensland
John Quiggin is a Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland. He is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic policy. He has produced over 1000 publications, including five books and over 300 journal articles and book chapters, in fields including environmental economics, risk analysis, production economics, and the theory of economic growth. He has also written on policy topics including climate change, micro-economic reform, privatisation, employment policy and the management of the Murray-Darling river system. John Quiggin has been an active contributor to Australian public debate in a wide range of media. He is a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review, to which he also contributes review and feature articles. He frequently comments on policy issues for radio and TV. He was one of the first Australian academics to present publications on a website (now at http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin). In 2002, he commenced publication of a blog (now at http://johnquiggin.com/) providing daily comments on a wide range of topics.