New staff for Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
The popularity of University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning has created the need for many new positions to fill both the research and teaching requirements of the school.
L-R: Dr Non Arkaraprasertkul, Associate Professor Cara Wrigley, Dr Ljudmila Koprivec, Dr Eugenia Gasparri, Dr Naseem Ahmadpour, Dr David Kroll, Dr Tooran Alizadeh, Professor Jianlei Niu. Absent: Professor Andrew Leach, Dr Arianna Brambilla, Dr Dallas Rogers, Dr Kazjon Grace, Dr Sarah Breen Lovett.
Thirteen new staff have joined the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning to support expanding research interests and growing student numbers – up 35 percent in the past five years. New teaching and research staff were appointed across architecture, architectural science, design and urbanism in late 2016 and early 2017.
Professor John Redmond, Dean of the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, said: “The injection of new talent from Sydney, interstate, Europe, Asia and the United States brings industry specialists, international experts and global thinkers to our school.
“They are all standouts in their area of work, and are well placed to continue building on our recent success in the QS World University Rankings, which saw us move up two places to 15th position globally and retain the number one spot in Australia in architecture and the built environment,” said Professor Redmond.
Professor Andrew Leach and Dr Arianna Brambilla join the architecture discipline in research and teaching. Leach was Professor of Architectural History at Griffith University, and instrumental in establishing a new architecture program. His broad research extends from the history of the baroque, to the architecture and urban history of the Gold Coast, resulting in his 2016 book, Off the Plan: The Urbanisation of the Gold Coast. Leach’s latest book, Rome, is an unconventional guide to one the great cities of the world, exposing the history of the buildings, monuments, topography, streets and gardens of the ancient metropolis.
Dr Brambilla arrived at the end of March 2017 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a graduate in building engineering and architecture from the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy. Her research in the psychology of human comfort focuses on sustainability and technological innovation.
Professor Jianlei Niu joins from Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he was the Director of the Research Centre for Building Environment Engineering. His appointment as Professor of Building Environment and Energy is a joint position with the Faculty of Engineering and IT. He brings a strong international research background in the field of indoor office environments and energy-efficient buildings.
Dr Tooran Alizadeh, Dr Non Arkaraprasertkul and Dr Dallas Rogers take up three Senior Lecturer roles in urban and regional planning and policy. Dr Tooran Alizadeh is Program Director of the Master of Urban Design. Previously Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environment Planning at Griffith University, her research is on the policy and planning implications of telecommunications, with an interest in Australia’s National Broadband Network, telework and smart cities.
Dr Non Arkaraprasertkul previously held teaching and research positions at universities in the United States, including Harvard and New York universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of South Florida. Recently, he was a design consultant and expert in-residence in urban anthropology at the global design consultancy IDEO. His research addresses the urban design and problems of Asian cities, including mega-cities, through the lenses of design and social science.
Dr Dallas Rogers comes from Western Sydney University where he was a graduate and lecturer in urban studies in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology. His extensive housing research spans foreign investment, global real estate, global cities and citizenship, housing affordability, digital technologies and future urban communities.
Three new design appointments include Dr Naseem Ahmadpour, lecturer in design thinking. She was previously the Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Design Innovation at Swinburne University. Her research contributed to the understanding of design for human wellbeing. She has worked with Bombardier Aerospace in Montreal, collaborating with designers to establish a company culture of ‘design for experience’.
Associate Professor Cara Wrigley will lead Design Innovation. She was a Principal Research Fellow in the Design and Innovation Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney. She is interested in design-driven innovation and has worked with start-ups, small to medium companies, and multinational corporates to integrate theoretical developments with product innovation.
Dr Kazjon Grace returns to the University where he completed both his doctorate and post-doctorate. Commencing part time, he will transition from Assistant Research Professor at the University of North Carolina in the USA to Australia. From July 2017, he is in the full-time position of Program Director of Design Computing and is undertaking Design Lab research dedicated to improving human interaction and experiences using digital technologies.
Four postdoctoral research fellows, Dr Ljudmila Koprivec, Dr Eugenia Gasparri, Dr Sarah Breen Lovett and Dr David Kroll, join the Innovation in Applied Design Lab. Under the leadership of Associate Professor Mathew Aitchison, they will research new solutions for the built environment, looking at design innovation, robotic fabrication and sustainable prefabrication in industrialised building.
