Congratulations to Professor Thomas Astell-Burt who has been named in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List, recognising researchers whose papers rank in the top one percent of citations for their field.
Congratulations to Dr Callum Parker who has been awarded a 2026 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Dr Parker is developing a toolkit to help designers co-design and evaluate context-aware external human–machine interfaces, supporting safer communication between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians.
Congratulations to Dr Soojeong Yoo who has been awarded $55,000 through the 2026 University of Sydney Research Excellence and Inclusion Prize. This award will support building a strong network across the Western Sydney Local Health District and raise the profile of the Health & Immersive Interaction (HII) Lab as a hub for collaborative, impactful health technology research.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Arianna Brambilla and Dr Thomas Parkinson who have been announced as investigators for an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project commencing in 2026, for the project, “Mould exposure in Australian homes: from remediation to prevention”.
Congratulations to Dr Aysu Kuru who as part of the Architecture, Design and Planning Sustainability Team, was recognised at the 2025 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. The team won the "Better Place to Work" award which commends their outstanding efforts to embed sustainable practices in architecture and design, fostering a healthier workplace and community.
A co-design workshop to design nature-based interventions was held in March 2026 at Westmead Hospital. The workshop was led by Dr Bow Yiying Wu and facilitated by Professor Thomas Astell-Burt, Nicole Evangelidis, Dr Raju Kanukula, Dr Lauren Del Rosario, and Dr Yvonne Tran. We talked about the ways we can enable and empower more people to reap the health and social benefits of greenspace. Participants shared personal stories that reminded us why nature and our connection with it matters so deeply across our lives.
Professor Thomas Astell Burt was invited to speak at the Citygreen “Where Shade hits the Pavement” conference. He discussed how strategic urban greening serves as a vital nature prescription for our communities. His talk focused on:
A delegation of several Korean institutions visited the Centre for Flourishing Cities. These included the Korea Forest Service, the National Institute of Forest Science, the Korea National Arboretum (Sejong), and the Korea Forest Conservation Association. Featured speakers from the Centre included Professor Thomas Astell-Burt, Associate Professor Adrienne Keane, Dr Aysu Kuru, Dr Özgür Göçer, and Dr Vera Xia, showing the wide-ranging benefits of restoring nature and biodiversity in our cities, buildings, and communities. Valued contributions were also provided by Professor Andrew Merchant and Associate Professor Tina Bell from Science. We spoke about implementation of the 3-30-300 rule, botanic gardens, the great potential of Building-Integrated Greenery, reductions in temperature offered by green walls, nature therapies and the moments in nature that afford us solitude.
The second workshop of the Facades in the Loop (F-LOOP) project was held at Arup Sydney. It explored how green façades shape sensory experiences, biodiversity, wellbeing, and environmental quality in our cities. Following the systems thinking workshop, CityForest guided our sensory walks through urban green spaces. The project is a collaboration between the University of Sydney Architecture, Design and Planning and UCL Institute for Environmental Design & Engineering, supported by the Ignition Grants 2024/25.
Featured keynotes from advisory group members Professor Alex O’Mara, Professor Greg Vann, Professor Trish Davidson and Associate Professor JR Baker.
City of Sydney, National Heart Foundation, and Western Sydney Local Health District.
