Research Centres

Professor Ali Abbas, FIEAust FRSN

Professor Ali Abbas is an internationally recognised leader in process systems engineering, circular economy innovation, and sustainability transitions. He currently serves as the Associate Dean (Research) within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sydney, driving strategic research initiatives and fostering significant industry and government collaborations. He is also the Founding Director of the Waste Transformation Research Hub, a national research centre addressing technological challenges in Australia's waste industry.

Ali completed his Bachelor's degree and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney. He previously held academic appointments at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and the University of New South Wales (UNSW Asia) in Singapore, along with visiting professorships at leading international institutions, including Harvard University.

With over 20 years' experience in Process Systems Engineering (PSE), Ali's expertise encompasses process intensification, techno-economic feasibility, multiscale modelling, process scale-up, optimisation, and the design of low-emissions technologies. His work spans applications in eco-industrial parks, clean energy, biotechnology, waste transformation, carbon capture, and biomedical systems.

Ali has been at the forefront of circular economy transitions in Australia, identifying practical pathways to implement circular economy principles effectively. As Australia's inaugural Chief Circular Engineer at Circular Australia, he actively shapes national sustainability policies and strategies. He is the founding Chair of theAustralian Circular Economy Conference, an influential national platform driving collaboration on circular economy solutions across industry, government, and academia.

A prolific researcher, Ali conducts fundamental computational and applied research, with a strong emphasis on resource optimisation and efficiency across multiple scales. He has authored over 160 scientific and engineering publications, and is recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, placing him among the top 2% globally in his field.

Ali has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Australia-Harvard Fellowship (2011), the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Fellowship as an Australia-China Future Leader in Clean Coal Technologies (2012), the international PSE Model-Based Innovation Prize (London, 2008; runner-up 2015), and the Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship for outstanding research leadership. He was also a finalist in the 2023 Eureka Prize for Innovative Research in Sustainability.

Ali translates his research into impactful commercial outcomes through deep-tech ventures, including Scimita Group and Trofica, developing breakthrough technologies in clean energy, circular economy, and sustainable urban agriculture. He provides strategic advisory services to industry and government bodies, leveraging his expertise to advance sustainable technologies and policies. Additionally, Ali serves on the board of the Australian Government's Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR), actively fostering international research and innovation partnerships.

Professor Abendroth graduated with a BSc (First Class Honours, ranked top of class) in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Adelaide and completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide/Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science as a Dawes Scholar. She undertook post-doctoral training at Stanford University, where she was awarded the Katherine McCormick Women in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Stanford School of Medicine Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. Professor Abendroth returned to Australia and was awarded a Rold Edgar Lake Fellowship and established the Viral Immunology Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney. Professor Abendroth’s laboratory is based in the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney where she leads a multidisciplinary research program investigating how human herpesviruses interact and evade the host immune system. Professor Abendroth is teachs immunology and virology to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as being course coordinator for IMMU3202/3903 (Immunology in Human Disease and Immunology in Human Disease (Advanced).

Dania Abu Awwad is a lecturer and researcher within the Discipline of Medical Imaging Sciences at the University of Sydney. She completed her Bachelor of Applied Science (Diagnostic Radiography) (Hons) degree in 2018 and her PhD in 2021 at the University of Sydney. Dania has been teaching at the University of Sydney since 2019 and continues to work clinically as a diagnostic radiographer.

Dania's research revolves around breast cancer, overimaging, and patient care. 

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, where he leads the MERLin (Materials Energy Research Laboratory in nanoscale) group- School of Chemistry and with 20 years experience, he is one of the leading experts in hydrogen technologies,advising many key stakeholders.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou is Director of the Australian Association for Hydrogen Energy, Vice-President of the Australian French Association for Research and Innovation, Co-director of the Australian-French Research Network FACES and the ARC Training Centre for Hydrogen GlobH2E, and Chief Investigator of Hy-Supply. He is also the President and CTO of H2potential.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou hold 3 master degrees, in Physics, Physical Chemistry, and Material Science. After completing his PhD in 2001 in heterogeneous catalysis under the supervision of Prof Michel Che, he worked with Prof. Paul Bernhardt on bio-electrochemistry at the University of Queensland. In 2003, he joined the research centre Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Germany and worked on the development of advanced materials for hydrogen storage with Prof. Thomas Klassen. In 2005, he moved to Queen Mary University London with Prof. Xiao Guo and later to University College London where he supported research projects on hydrogen, biofuel cells, and biomaterials.

He returned to Australia in 2009 and created MERLin within the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of New South Wales (Sydney). Francois Aguey-Zinsou developed several world first including hydrogen bikes and BBQ. He is co-founder and director of H2potential. H2Potential is a consulting company focused on Hydrogen. H2potential provides expert, independent advice and identify emerging technologies, innovative use-cases and appropriate partners that result in lower implementation risks and faster return on investment.

Francois Aguey-Zinsou serves/served on the editorial/advisory boards of 5 international journals, and was one of the founding members of the Energy Future Conferences. He has received many awards, including the 2018 Australia's Most Innovative Engineers award and the 2014 ICheme ChemEng365 award, and was finalist of the 2017 Make the Planet Great Again Call, the 2017 and 2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes in Excellence in research innovation

Publication record

> 200 publications, including 20 patents/patent applications and 2 book chapters

Dr Naseem Ahmadpour is a researcher in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). She is a member of the Design Lab and leads Affective Interactions research group. She was awarded her PhD in human-machine interaction from University of Montreal (Ecole Polytechnique), Canada and her MSc in industrial design (specialized in human factors) from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Her research explores and critiques new imaginaries in the future of care and work, by questioning ethical approaches to and consequences of sociotechnical systems that increasingly shape those futures. In the past five years, Dr Ahmadpour has investigated platformization of care through immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) usinga multi-perspective participatory approach.

Clinical Professor Rebekah Ahmed is a Staff specialist Neurologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and University of Sydney, where she directs the multidisciplinary Memory and Cognition Clinic. She graduated from Medicine at the University of Adelaide (University Medal) and completed her Neurology training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Concord Hospital. She was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurology Fellowship to the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. She also completed a Clinical Research Fellowship at the Dementia Research Centre, University College London. Her PhD focused on eating and metabolic abnormalities in Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She is a clinician scientist with her research focusing on metabolic biomarkers in neurodegeneration. She runs a number of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and gene therapy in FTD. She is Co-Block Chair for Neurology in the University of Sydney Medical Program.

David Airey graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1979 with a BA in Engineering and stayed on to complete Masters and PhD degrees in Soil Mechanics. He took up a position as a research fellow at the University of Western Australia in 1987, and moved to the University of Sydney in 1989. Professor Airey was Acting Head of School of Civil Engineering during 2016.

David Airey is on the editorial board of the Geotechnical Testing Journal, is a core member of TC29 a technical committee of the International Society for Geotechnical and Foundation Engineering concerned with pre-failure behaviour of geomaterials, and is a committee member of the Australian Geomechanics Society.

Associate Professor Dr Akhtar's research interests are broad, and include: Governance, ESG, AI/ML, Financial and Cyber-crime, Corporate Finance (Share market and Bond market), Multinationals, Tax, M&A, International Finance, Innovation, Superannuation/Pension systems, Banking, Risk Management, Behavioural Finance, Cross-Cultural & Indigenous Studies, Islamic Finance and Higher Education. Her research publications have appeared in leading international and local journals. Dr Akhtar has received a number of competitive external research grants, with total funding in excess of 1.7 million dollars. She was a recipient of an ARC DECRA Fellowship. Her research has been acknowledged by the Australian-US Fulbright and Oxford Fellowship. Her research has been instrumental in policy and regulatory space especially in Bond, Tax and international trade. She has been invited several times by the Australian Federal Parliament to serve as Expert Witness on critical local and international policy matters. She is an active researcher and presents her work regularly at international and Australian conferences including the American Finance Association Conference. A number of her research papers received local and international prestigious awards. She has engaged in invited research visits to several top US Universities, including Harvard, MIT and Stanford among others.

Dr Akhtar has a broad teaching portfolio encompassing both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She also supervises Honours, Masters and PhD students. She has been awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence and also the "Top Supervisor" Award.

Associate Professor Alam is a health social scientist with expertise in integrating qualitative studies within randomised trials to improve their design, conduct and interpretation. His research focuses on implementation research in maternal, child and adolescent nutrition across South and Southeast Asia and Africa - including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, Malawi and Senegal - as well as gender equality, disability and social inclusion in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island nations. He has expertise in nutrition-sensitive agriculture and social safety net interventions. His research area also includes the impact of household air pollution on perinatal outcomes. His research on neonatal skincare has translated into policy and practice in newborn care in Bangladesh, Nepal and sub-Saharan Africa. He teaches at the postgraduate level in global health and qualitative and health social science methods. A/Prof Alam’s higher degree students conduct research in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Fiji, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan, Vietnam and South Sudan.

I am a social science and education research expert with extensive experience across higher education, public policy, equity and inclusion, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. My work integrates academic research excellence with culturally grounded practice and strategic program development.

I specialise in gender studies, sexual violence prevention in higher education, and the design of actions, programs, and policies that advance equity, diversity, and social justice. Across my academic career, I have taught and supervised in sociology, methodology, and education, with a long-standing commitment to fostering culturally safe and inclusive learning environments.

My professional experience includes:

• Higher education supervision and academic teaching, particularly in sociology, research methodology, and social justice education.
• Public policy evaluation and program development, informed by robust qualitative and quantitative research.
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, including gender equity plans, institutional actions, training programs, and the development of indicators to measure systemic impact.
• Sexual violence prevention in higher education, through prevention frameworks, training approaches, and institutional responses that prioritise wellbeing and safety.
• Expertise in gender studies, including intersectionality, organisational cultures, and structural inequalities.
• Team leadership and research project management, guiding multidisciplinary teams in diverse settings.

In my current role, I work within Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, supporting community-led approaches to wellbeing. I also contribute to breastfeeding support programs and professional training for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, ensuring these initiatives are culturally responsive and strengths‑based.

My experience working across multiple countries has deepened my understanding of institutional cultures, social dynamics, and gender relations, particularly how these structures shape inequities and opportunities. This global perspective strengthens my commitment to justice‑oriented practice and drives my focus on systems‑level change. I bring a strategic and solutions‑focused mindset, grounded in resilience, adaptability, and a strong awareness of structural barriers. These qualities enable me to navigate complexity, challenge inequitable norms, and lead initiatives that create meaningful, sustainable change. I am deeply committed to collaborative, community‑centred ways of working and to advancing actions that promote equity, collective wellbeing, and the empowerment of communities who have been historically marginalised.

BA (Hons) AdMU; MBA ESCP Europe; PhD Sydney; GradCertEdStudies Sydney; GradDipTrainHRM Leicester

Sandra Alday is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Business School. Extending her experience in international strategy and organisation development consulting, her scholarly research explores the nature of risk, how it is perceived and communicated, and how it is managed. She also investigates the impact of risk management approaches on equity and sustainability particularly in Southeast Asian contexts. Because pathways to sustainable futures require different ways of thinking and doing, she further examines how learning experiences can transform the way people and organisations think about risk and sustainability. 

Sandra is Deputy Director (Partnerships) of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) at the University of Sydney and Program Director of the Master of Management and Master of Management (CEMS) programs at the University of Sydney Business School. She is Vice President of the Academy of International Business Sustainability Interest Group (AIB SIG), Past President of the Society for Risk Analysis-Australia and New Zealand (SRA-ANZ), and Past Councillor of the international Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Management Education (JME) and a member of the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS) Oceania Committee. Committed to excellence and innovation in higher education, Sandra is a recipient of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Robert Aldrich, Professor Emeritus of European History, carries out research in modern European and colonial history, especially the history of the French and British overseas empires; the history of modern monarchy; and the history of gender and sexuality.

Dr Tonima Ali joined the University of Sydney in September 2020 as a postdoctoral research associate in the School of Biomedical Engineering. She is currently conducting research work at the Brain and Mind Centre and involved in teaching with the School of Biomedical Engineering. She has previously worked at the University of Queensland as the National Imaging Facility (NIF) Fellow for 7T MRI.

After finishing her BSc in Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada, she went to the University of Calgary to complete her MSc in Biomedical Engineering and later joined as a lecturer at the American International University of Bangladesh. She moved to Australia in 2013 and completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics from Queensland University of Technology. She developed MRI-based methods for assessment of biological tissues during her PhD, which were successfully implemented forunderstanding the knee joint architecture in kangaroo, identifying the developmental pathway of Osteoarthritis and assessment of tissue density for breast cancer prediction. She started her research career on MRI methods and optimisation at the University of Queensland and is an affiliated research fellow at that institution.

Professor Jennifer Alison is a Professor of Respiratory Physiotherapy, Discipline of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney and Professor Allied Health (Chronic Diseases) Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. Her role in SLHD is to enhance the research capacity of allied health clinicians. At the University, Prof Alison has taught into the cardiopulmonary physiotherapy units of study in the BAppSc (Physiotherapy) and Master of Physiotherapy programs and led the development of the clinical simulation unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Prof Alison was a clinical specialist physiotherapist (Level 6) in Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Department of Physiotherapy, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital until 2015. She leads the Living Well with Chronic Disease and Disability Research Group (https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/our-research/research-centres/living-well-with-chronic-disease-research-group.html) and the Respiratory and Cardiac Rehabilitation and Management (ResCaRM) Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney.

As part of her keen interest in health care, and particularly lung health, she is on the executive committee of NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation Respiratory Network (co-chair 2009-2015) and is Chair of the Australian Pulmonary Rehabilitation Network of the Lung Foundation Australia (LFA). Through this latter committee Prof Alison led the development of the web-based Pulmonary Rehabilitation Toolkit for clinicians and the writing of the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Pulmonary Rehabilitation. She is Co-chair of the Respiratory Stream in Sydney Health Partners (an NHMRC Advanced Health and Research Translation Centre) and is Chair of the American Thoracic Society Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assembly Planning Committee.

Prof Alison has published 165 peer-reviewed journal articles in top ranked journals in her field (70 in the last 5 years); 1 book and 9 book chapters and over 195 peer-reviewed abstracts. She has been awarded 62 research grants as Chief Investigator, including 7 NHMRC Grants (3 as CIA). Professor Alison has supervised 22 PhD and Masters completions (18 as primary supervisor), 19 honours students (4 with University Medals) and currently supervises 8 PhD students and 2 honours students. Her PhD and Masters students have received many prestigious awards at national and international conferences.

Prof Alison’s research interests are in the area of exercise responses and exercise training in people with lung disease. Specifically, she has evaluated the impact of lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis and interstitial lung diseases, on exercise performance and the effects of interventions such as pulmonary rehabilitation, to improve exercise capacity and quality of life in people with these conditions. Her recent research interests have been to make the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation available to a larger cohort of people with COPD by evaluating the effectiveness of walk training, water-based exercise, Tai Chi and telerehabilitation. The current NHMRC grant that she leads is evaluating the implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation within Aboriginal Medical Services to improve equity of access of Aboriginal people to culturally safe, best-practice management of chronic lung disease.

Professor Tooran Alizadeh is an intersectional feminist from the Global Majority - born, raised, educated, and practised in Southern cities as a built environment professional. She, nevertheless, acknowledges two decades of living, studying, and working on the unceded lands of the First Nations people in Australia. Her ongoing research spans smart urbanism, digital geographies, infrastructure, and Southern urbanism.

Tooran has an established track record on the equity implications of telecommunication infrastructure in Australia, as the first academic who demonstrated the ups and downs of the National Broadband Network (NBN) with attention to the spatial patterns of the mixed-technology NBN rollout. More recently, however, she has advanced an intersectoral approach towards infrastructure arguing for an integrated public-led infrastructure governance in Australia and beyond - laying the foundation for mutually respectful coexistence of the Western urban planning governance and Indigenous governance. This distinct line of inquiry builds solidarity with Indigenous sovereignties while making significant contribution to urban studies.

A second prominent research trajectory focuses on the global trends of smart urbanism from a 'Southern urban critique' - defining 'South' not as a location, but as a power relation that has long been used to silence and sideline. In this line of inquiry, Tooran has increasingly adopted an intersectional feminist lens to investigate the socio-spatial implications of smart city development and unfolding digital geographies in India - as part of a broader research agenda 'the right to the smart city in the Global South' to 1) 'expose' in the sense of analysing and articulating the roots of smart city shortcomings; 2) 'propose' in the sense of working with those affected or excluded to construct normative alternative visions for 'just smart city'; and 3) 'politicise' in the sense of clarifying the political implications of what is exposed and proposed, and supporting, organising, and mobilising around the alternative visions.

Tooran's research is supported by a variety of funding sources (including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship), has resulted in over 100 refereed publications, and made meaningful contribution to the public discourse around the urban and equity implications of infrastructure development in Australia and beyond - evidenced by numerous prime time TV and radio interviews, and hundreds of quotations in the print media. She is also the Associate Editor of Telematics and Informatics - an interdisciplinary high impact journal on the social impacts of new technologies. Tooran was the co-convener of Smart Urbanism (Research) Lab at the University of Sydney (2021-2025), the lead investigator on the Infrastructure Governance Incubator (2020-2024) funded by the Henry Halloran Research Trust, and a recipient of the prestigious Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellowship at the University of Sydney (2019 and 2020).

BAppScPhysiotherapy(First Class Hons)(Syd), PhD (Syd)

A/Prof Natalie Allen is an Associate Professor in the Neurological Physiotherapy team within the Discipline of Physiotherapy. Natalie is recognised internationally as an expert on physiotherapy interventions for people with Parkinson's disease. Natalie leads a research team in three key areas: 1) development of interventionsto improve safe mobility and reduce falls; 2) exploring the potential for exercise to assist in the management of pain; 3) investigation of models of service delivery, including the use of technology and exercise self-management.

Natalie's research expertiseincludes clinical research of a variety of methodologies including randomised controlled trials (RCTs), uncontrolled trials, observational, translational and qualitative studies, and systematic reviews. She regularly presents her work nationally and internationally and has been invited to present at prestigious international Parkinson's disease conferences.Her work is published in in top journals in the fields of rehabilitation and clinical neurology.

Professor Tim Allender's principal research over the past 30 years concerns Indian education and empire studies using multidisciplinary approaches that focus on gender and feminism. His most recent book with Manchester University Press (Studies in Imperialism Series), entitled Empire Religiosity, explores female Roman Catholicism in colonial and postcolonial India and is now available in paperback. This book is the WINNER of the Triennial Distinguished Book Award, 2022-25, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, Notre Dame University, South Bend, USA. His previous book, Learning Femininity in Colonial India, also with Manchester University Press (Studies in Imperialism Series), now also available in paperback, develops key gender, feminist and knowledge transfer themes concerning India. This book is the WINNER of the Anne Bloomfield Triennial book prize awarded by the HES (UK) for best history of education book published between 2014 and 2017. As the nominee of the NSW/ACT Committee of Chairs of Academic Boards and Senates, Tim has consulted over many years with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) on the development of the Australian National Curriculum (History).

Tim has held visiting fellowships at the University of Winchester and the University of London. He has held research Professorships at the Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig, Germany; at the University of Toronto, Canada; at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla, India; at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, at the University of Birmingham, UK and, most recently, at Heidelberg University, Germany. He is co-editor of a forthcoming book on visual literacies and history. Tim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain in 2024.

Tim has published earlier single-authored books, 53 mostly single-authored international journal articles and book chapters, illuminating other sociological, medical and cultural aspects of empire. He is the lead co-editor of four edited books, five special issues of international journals and he is on the editorial boards of six leading international journals. Tim is founding co-editor of two successful international book series: ISCHE global histories (Europe); and Studies in Visual History (de Gruyter, Berlin). He has held two successfully completed ARC grants. In recognition of his international standing as a scholar of education of India he delivered the keynote address to the world ISCHE conference in Turkey (June 2015) - the first Australian invited to do so. He has also delivered 45 invited keynotes and other sole presentations in international and national forums in Europe, the US and in Asia.

Dr. Francois-Marie Allioux is a Research Fellow at the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the field of solid and liquid-based electronics and optics. Before joining the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Dr. Allioux was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales.

Dr. Allioux has a strong background in the field of chemical, process and material engineering. He earned his Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France and his Ph.D. degree from the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University in Geelong, VIC, Australia, where he conducted research on advanced materials and their applications in water purification and resource recovery.

Margaret studied Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, MPhil Public Health and her PhD at the University of Sydney and is Director of Nutrition and Dietetics and a teaching and research academic. Her current interests are in public health nutrition and include determinant research using quantitative and qualitative methods and evidence synthesis via systematic review. She is also expert in nutritional behaviour change interventions and health promotion. A longstanding interest is in adoption of new technologies for more objective dietary assessement methods. 

FDA FNSA

Chair Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Nutrition

Mark Allon teaches Sanskrit and other ancient languages of South Asia (Pali and Gandhari) and Buddhist and Asian studies. His primary research interests are the composition and transmission of early Buddhist literature, the ways in which texts have been used by Buddhist communities, and the Indic languages of early Buddhist texts (Pali, Gandhari, Sanskrit).

PhD (Warwick); MA (Warwick); BA (Catania).

Giorgia Alù completed a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Warwick (UK). Her research interests range from Italian cultural history to comparative literature and visual studies. Before joining the University of Sydney she taught at the University of Warwick and at the University of Reading (UK).

My research is in the areas of political economy, network empirics, institutions, conflict and development. I'm passionate about using innovative data and tools to explore the world around us.