People
Co-Directors:
Professor Barbara Norman
Professor Barbara Norman is a Life Fellow and past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia, an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (UK) and a member of the Eastern Regional Organisation for Housing and Planning. Her research and teaching interests include urban and regional planning, sustainable coastal planning, climate change adaptation and urban governance.
Professor Norman provides strategic policy advice to all levels of government and industry on urban and coastal planning issues. She is a member of the national stakeholder advisory group to CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship, a member of the national Coastal and Climate Change Council and Deputy Chair of the Regional Development Australia ACT Committee.
Professor Will Steffen
Professor Will Steffen is Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, and serves as Climate Commissioner, Australian Government. Steffen has a long history in international global change research, serving from 1998 to 2004 as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden, and before that as Executive Officer of IGBP’s Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project. Prior to taking up the CCI Directorship in 2008, Prof Steffen was the inaugural director of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society.
Prof Steffen’s interests span a broad range within the field of sustainability and Earth System science, with an emphasis on the science of climate change, approaches to climate change adaptation in land systems, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and the history and future of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.
CURF Team
University of Canberra
Dr Hitomi Nakanishi
Dr Hitomi Nakanishi is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at University of Canberra. Her background is in urban and regional planning and transport, and her research focuses on urban and regional sustainability and climate change adaptation. This involves using multidisciplinary approaches to climate change adaptation, including assessing impacts on quality of life issues from the perspectives of land use and urban form.
Dr Richard Hu
Dr Richard Hu is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at University of Canberra. Richard has cross-national academic and professional experience in Australia, China and America. Richard’s research interests include urban and regional analysis, economic development, place making, and China’s urbanisation.
Mr Brian Weir
Brian Weir is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra. His thesis concerns policy responses to climate change in the Canberra tourism industry. Previously Brian worked in the ACT Government in the business development and tourism policy fields.
The Australian National University
Dr Bob Webb
Dr Bob Webb came to the ANU Climate Change Institute in 2009 after a senior executive career in the public and private sectors including Deputy Commissioner roles in the ATO, and General Manager positions in the Australian Trade Commission and in the national and international resource and manufacturing sectors. His initial education and postgraduate research was in physics and he has had a long standing interest in global and local sustainability issues and strategies.
With the Climate Change Institute he has focused on climate adaptation issues, including leading a project on climate change vulnerability for the ACT and Region on behalf of the ACT government (in collaboration with the NSW government), and several more specific local issues, including most recently a report on Canberra's Nature Reserves. He has also initiated work (jointly with the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility) to distil adaptation experience from a wide range of urban and regional adaptation projects being progressed around Australia, in order to develop and communicate key learnings, issues and best practices.
Dr Lance Heath
Dr Lance Heath is Project and Business Development Manager for the ANU Climate Change Institute. Lance has 15 years experience in water resource management, international research collaboration and technology commercialisation. He was Technical Manager for the Environment Industry Development Network (administered by the former CRC for Waste Management and Pollution Control) from 1994 to 2000. From 2004 to 2006 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the ANU and Project Officer for the ANU Institute for Environment from 2006 to 2008.
Lance has extensive experience in hydrological modelling and in the development of decision support systems for policy makers. He is also a leading specialist on Australian Environmental Technologies with particular emphasis on developing international links between Australia and other Asia-Pacific economies in the area of environmental technology exchange. He has managed numerous aid and economic development programs for several developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ms Roz Smith
Ms Roz Smith has worked in the communications profession for 25 years. She commenced her communications career at the Network TEN news bureau in Sydney. After working in news Roz moved to a production manager position in the Production Department, followed by a public relations role in the Publicity Department where she managed major national and international televised special events.
Throughout her career Roz has held senior Communications positions in a variety of industries including the medical profession, the IT profession, pharmaceutical industry and the university sector. At ANU Roz has worked at the Centre for Environmental Studies, The Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Institute for Environment and The Climate Change Institute.
CURF Executive Officer
Ms Tracy Jin Cui
Tracy Jin Cui has a Master of Science degree from the University of New South Wales. Her research interest focuses on using geospatial technologies to explore urban green space and socioeconomics in Canberra for sustainable urban development. Tracy has previously held positions in project and event management working with multiple organizations both in Australia and in China.