Keynote
Speakers

Gavin Ashley is Heat of Better Cities & Regions and Director of Sustainability at HIP V. HYPE, an ethical, socially conscious and environmentally focused property developer, sustainability consulting practice and work share provider. Gavin provides project leadership across a range of projects with a key focus on the integration between sustainability and climate response with strategic planning processes. He leads the technical delivery of climate mitigation and adaptation planning for a range of clients including education providers and local government. Gavin brings over 15 years of experience in urban development and sustainability across the private, non-profit and public sectors and has an extensive stakeholder network in these industries. His early career work as a town planner and more recently for Australian Energy Foundation and City of Melbourne, refined his thinking about what delivers community benefit, and how the planning process can be used to drive sustainability outcomes.

Joe Hurley is Associate Professor at the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. He is an expert in urban sustainability, policy and governance. He has led several projects examining the intersection between urban heat, urban forest management, and urban planning and development, funded by the National Environmental Science Program, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Horticulture Australia Ltd, and several Australian state and local governments. This work has contributed understanding on the relationship between urban form, urban forest cover and urban heat, and revealed that existing land-use governance capacity and policy mechanisms are ineffective at protecting urban forest cover, especially on private land. The work featured in the most recent Australian State of the Environment Report (2021) and Audit of Australian Infrastructure (2019) and is directly informing urban policy reform processes in state and local government. He was recently awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Project, in partnership with the University of Western Australia, titled “Why is (re)development hot?: Measuring cumulative heat in Australian cities”. This project aims to causally identify the warming effect of residential development and investigate the impact of planning policies that control changes in the built form associated with increased heat exposure. Joe takes a particular interest in research-practice exchange and collaboration. He is founding academic editor of Cities People Love, a research-practice communication publication; technical advisor to the Council Alliance for Sustainable Built Environments; and regularly provides expert comment and research evidence to media.

Candace Jordan has worked as a climate change adaptation practitioner across local and sub-national levels of government. She has over a decade of experience in developing policies, strategies and practical actions to adapt cities to the impacts of climate change. In her role at the City of Melbourne, she provides strategic and technical advice and works collaboratively on projects and operational programs specialising in climate change adaptation and climate risk. In particular, she focuses on ensuring the built and natural environments are designed and managed to reduce the exposure to the physical risks of climate change and protect the community. Her current work involves developing and collaborating on initiatives that will help Melbourne adapt to the risk of extreme heat including developing and trialling resilience concepts in response to extreme heat risk and vulnerability. She has also led the development of the City of Melbourne's Cool Routes tool - a wayfinding tool that enables users to plot thermally comfortable journeys walking and cycling journeys across the municipality. Prior to joining the City of Melbourne, Candace was a Policy Officer at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning where she led the delivery of the Inter-jurisdictional Adaptation Working Group and contributed to the development of Victoria’s second statewide Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Candace has a collaborative approach to adaptation planning and policy, building relationships across organisations and disciplines to achieve positive adaptation outcomes. She is passionate about building Melbourne’s and its community’s resilience to the impacts of climate change to ensure Melbourne remains a great city to live in and enjoy.

David Karoly is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. David is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne, having retired from the CSIRO Climate Science Centre in January 2022. He was Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne (2007-2018) and in the A.R.C. Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. He was Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO (2018-2021). Professor Karoly was a member of the National Climate Science Advisory Committee (2018-2019) and a member of the Climate Change Authority (2012-2017), which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He has been involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles. He was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences.

Beth Keddie is Executive Director at Pollination, a specialist climate and nature investment and advisory firm. She is an experienced strategy and innovation leader having developed and implemented market leading strategies across multiple sectors in response to disruptive change. At Pollination, Beth’s work focuses on tailored climate and nature-positive transition strategies including identifying and implementing innovative commercial solutions across the built environment, transport, agriculture, energy and resources sectors. This encompasses advice on nature-related risks and opportunities in line with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures guidance along with expert guidance on emerging biodiversity credit markets. Beth holds a Master of Environment and Bachelors of Chemical Engineering and Commerce all from University of Melbourne. Prior to Pollination, Beth spent nearly ten years in renewable energy, facilitating investment and accelerated uptake of distributed energy solutions in the built environment at Jemena and Energy Queensland.

Ronnen Levison is Staff Scientist and Leader of the Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California. Within his research portfolio he develops cool roof, wall, and pavement materials; improves methods for the measurement of solar reflectance; and quantifies the energy and environmental benefits of cool surfaces. Ronnen serves on the boards and technical committees of the Cool Roof Rating Council and the Global Cool Cities Alliance, and advises policymakers, code officials, utilities, and building rating programs about cool surfaces. He holds a B.S. in engineering physics from Cornell University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He has authored or co-authored over 100 publications and serves on the editorial boards of Energy and Buildings, Solar Energy, Solar Energy Advances, and Scientific Reports. He received the 2016 Marty Hastings Award for outstanding contributions to the Cool Roof Rating Council, and a 2016 R&D 100 Award for invention of the Cool Roof Time Machine.

Edward Ng is an architect and Yao Ling Sun Professor of Architecture in the School of Architecture of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He specializes in Green Building, Environmental and Sustainable Design, and Urban Climatology for City Planning. As an environmental consultant to the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Edward developed the performance-based daylight design practice note, the Air Ventilation Assessment Technical Guidelines and the Urban Climatic Maps for City Planning. He worked with the governments and agencies in Singapore and Macau, as well as several Chinese cities, on Urban Climatic Maps. Recently, he has focused on designing for the elderly considering Climate Change. Professor Ng has published over 500 papers and 3 books. He has twice received the International Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). His project won the World Building of the Year Award at the 2017 World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Berlin and the Grand Award in the New Buildings Category at Green Building Award 2019 in Hong Kong.

Anna Laura Pisello currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Perugia in Italy and is visiting research associate at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA. In 2022, she achieved national qualification as a full professor of Applied Physics. Her dedication to international scientific contribution led her to serve as visiting scholar at Columbia University, Virginia Tech, and City University of New York. Anna's contributions to research have garnered recognition with over 150 published articles in refereed journals. Her work has earned her seven international academic awards and participation in European projects under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs. As principal investigator for various Horizon 2020 grants and the ERC Starting Grant HELIOS, Anna's research focuses on topics such as radiative passive cooling for urban heat island mitigation and optimization of solar energy production, indoor and outdoor wellbeing in complex urban environments, smart materials for energy efficiency, and urban resilience in the face of climate change. Anna serves as an associate editor for prestigious journals, including Solar Energy (Elsevier), Energy and Buildings (Elsevier), and Nature Scientific Reports. She actively contributes to the academic community as a member of the teaching board at the Doctorate School of Energy and Sustainable Development, providing mentorship to numerous PhD students at the University of Perugia. Moreover, she extends her mentorship to other academic institutions such as Aachen University, La Rochelle University, University College London, and DTU, among others, with her involvement in two doctoral network Marie Curie frameworks since 2018.

Mat Santamouris is the Anita Lawrence Professor of High Performance Architecture at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Mat is editor and author of 20 international books on topics related to heat island, solar energy and energy conservation in buildings published by Earthscan, Springer, etc. and author of over 400 scientific papers published in peer reviewed international scientific journals. Mat is listed as a Highly Cited Researcher for 2021 in Engineering for his ongoing and significant influence in the field and ranked 538 among top researchers in the world in all scientific disciplines in 2021 by Elsevier and Stanford University. Mat is also scientific coordinator of many international research programs and author Reviewer of research projects in 15 countries including USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Sweden, etc. Expert in various International Research Institutions. He is a past professor at the University of Athens, Greece and visiting Professor at the Cyprus Institute, Metropolitan University of London, Tokyo Polytechnic University, Bolzano University, Brunel University and National University of Singapore and past President of the National Centre of Renewable and Energy Savings of Greece.