Keynote Speakers

Professor Peter Newman AO

Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and Director of CUSP. His books include ‘Green Urbanism in Asia' (2013), ‘Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change'(2009), ‘Green Urbanism Down Under' (2009) and 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' with Jeff Kenworthy which was launched in the White House in 1999. In 2001-3 Peter directed the production of Western Australia's Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. In 2004-5 he was a Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney advising the government on planning and transport issues. In 2006/7 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville. Peter was on the Board of Infrastructure Australia 2008-14 and was a Lead Author for Transport on the IPCC for their 5th Assessment Report. In 2011 Peter was awarded the Sidney Luker medal by the Planning Institute of Australia (NSW) for his contribution to the science and practice of town planning in Australia and in 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport, particularly related to the saving and rebuilding of Perth's rail system. He was an elected Fremantle City Councillor from 1976-80 where he still lives.

Professor Jacqui True

Jacqui True is Professor of Politics & International Relations and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Monash University, Australia. She received her PhD from York University, Toronto, Canada and has held academic positions at Michigan State University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Auckland. She is specialist in Gender and International Relations. Her articles on gender mainstreaming and global governance and feminist research methodologies rank among the most highly cited in the field. Her current research is focused on the prevention of mass sexual violence in Asia Pacific and the political economy of post-conflict violence against women. She serves on the external advisory board of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Monash-Oxfam Partnership, the international editorial boards of Australian Journal of International Affairs, Politics & Gender, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Women, Politics & Policy, Political Science and International Studies Review. She is a past chair of the Standing Committee on International Relations of the Australian Political Studies Association, a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's academic network and a co-founder of the Women, Peace and Security Academic Collective (www.wpsac.wordpress.com). Her book, The Political Economy of Violence Against Women (Oxford, 2012) won the American Political Science Association's 2012 biennial prize for the best book in human rights and the British International Studies Association International Political Economy book prize in 2013.

Professor Peter Schlosser

Peter Schlosser is Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, New York. He is Deputy Director and Director of Research of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and serves as Chair of the Earth Institute faculty. He received M.S. and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Heidelberg in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Schlosser's research focuses on water systems, primarily in oceans and groundwater including problems caused by human impact. His scientific interests include water circulation in the ocean surface, movement into the deep ocean and circulation patterns within the deep ocean. His groundwater flow studies address shallow and deep aquifers, especially as they relate to past continental climate and environmental risk/impact studies. Current research is also directed toward exploration of mixing and gas exchange in ocean, rivers and estuaries. Schlosser is past Chair of the SEARCH program (Study of Environmental Arctic Change), co-Chair of the Science Steering Group for ISAC (International Study of Arctic Change), member of the Board of the International Sustainable Research Society (ISDRS), and member of the Earth League. He has served on numerous national and international science steering and advisory committees and was President of the Ocean Sciences Section and Council member of the American Geophysical Union. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Explorers Club.

Professor Matthew Clarke

Professor Matthew Clarke is the Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. He has spent the last two decades working and researching in the field of international development. His publications include books on the Millennium Development Goals, Climate Change and on the nexus between religion and development. His most recent books include: Development and Religion (Edward Elgar, UK), The Handbook of Research on Religion and Development (Edward Elgar, UK), and Islam and Development (Ashgate, UK). His fieldwork is predominantly in the Pacific region. Before joining academia, Professor Clarke worked for World Vision Australia.

Professor John Twaites

John Thwaites is a Professorial Fellow, Monash University, and Chair of ClimateWorks Australia and the Monash Sustainability Institute.

John also chairs the Australian Building Codes Board, the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust and is a director of the Australian Green Building Council. In 2012 and 2013, John chaired the National Sustainability Council appointed by the Federal Government to report on Australia's sustainability.

John is a member of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network ("SDSN") launched by the Secretary General of the UN to provide expert advice and support to the development of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. In 2012 and again in 2013, John was named as one of the 100 Global Sustainability Leaders by ABC Carbon Express.

In 2008-2010, John was a special adviser to the Timor-Leste Minister for Infrastructure and helped develop an Infrastructure Plan for Timor-Leste.

John Thwaites was Deputy Premier of Victoria from 1999 until his retirement in 2007. During this period he was Minister for Health, Minister for Planning, Minister for Environment, Minister for Water, Minister for Victorian Communities and Victoria's first Minister for Climate Change. In these portfolios he was responsible for major reforms in social policy, health, environment and water.

Prior to being elected to Parliament, he was a barrister and Mayor of South Melbourne.

He has degrees in Law (Honours) and Science from Monash Univeristy.

Professor Dr. Walter J.V. Vermeulen

Download the keynote presentation here.

The research focus of dr. Walter J.V. Vermeulen has originally been on implementation of environmental policies and application of sustainable innovations in production and consumption systems, both in the Netherlands and in developing countries (South Africa, Bhutan, China, India). He works from a broad social science approach, integrating theories from various fields of social sciences relevant for the study of societal responses to environmental issues, like policy sciences, business management, geography, sociology, innovation studies and social psychology.

These studies focus on in-firm decisions making processes in response to societal pressures on firms. These outside pressures vary from government policies to pressures by businesses in the supply chain (Vermeulen produced reports and studies in the field of environmental supply chain management starting since 1994); multi-party collaboration in the field of eco-industrial parks (publishing various reports and well cited journal articles in the early 2000's) and society pressures for application of energy related innovations in building and energy production (with various studies and articles in the early 2000's). This resulted in three PhD theses by van der Waals (2001), Agterbosch (2006) and Chappin (2008). Recently studies have been done in promoting the circular economy and public procurement and in strategies for strengthening corporate sustainability strategies and enhanced embedding inside firms and in their outside relations.

After 2002 the research has also shifted towards the international dimension of sustainable development (partly connected to the start of our international master program "Sustainable Development", of which Vermeulen is the program leader). With this his research has included analysing implementation of sustainable development policies in developing countries (Bhutan, China), amongst others products resulting in another PhD thesis by Rinzin (2006) and a master student winning the VVM-Rachel Carson Thesis Award: Drs. Linda Bakker with her thesis (2004) on the sustainability performance of Dutch multinationals in the Netherlands and in China.

First work in the field of international supply chains originates already from the mid-1990's, but was taken up after 2004 with the emergence of this subject in practice and in international and literature. In 2005 collaboration was started with Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria to analyse developments in improving sustainability in supply chains connecting the Dutch market with South African export products. In 2006 we started (financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Sanpad program)) a study including two South African PhD's, Ras, and Muller, analyzing the fresh fruits and wine supply chains, which offers first quantitative data on business and civil society efforts in this field, responding to European requirements (defending their theses in 2012). In collaboration with these and other international partners in India, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Burundi, Paraguay various studies have been conducted on the implementation of sustainable product certification in developing countries, also resulting in various articles in international journals.
For the Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) studies were done on the roles of governments in this emerging self-regulation (2011, 2013).

Vermeulen is current President of the International Sustainable Development Research Society. Since 2008 he chairs a special track on this subject in the annual International Sustainable Development Research Society conferences, convening scholars from all continents.
Vermeulen has more than 40 articles published in international journals . He is member of the Editorial Board of four international journals in the field of Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Vermeulen was Program Leader of the Utrecht University International Master in Sustainable Development (2006-2014).

Further information: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/wjvvermeulen

 

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10th - 12th July
2015
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