Our Graduates

Graduates from our PhD and Masters program have consistently achieved excellent examiners' reports from international leaders in their fields. Most have been eligible for the UTS Chancellor's Award, and several have been placed on the Chancellor's List.

The following students have graduated from ISF's postgraduate program:

Jenny Kent  Climate change - whose responsibility? from the personal to the global.

Keren Winterford Reframing the question used within international development to appreciate strengths and assets within communities.

Jane Palmer Ethnography for the future: An eye open in the dark.

Christopher Nelson  Applying phenomenography to development aid: should we recognize and embrace complexity in aid practice?.

Christiane Baumann Making better choices — an investigation of collaborative stakeholder dialogue as catalyst for consensus building and learning in the transport policy process.

Dana Cordell graduated in Autumn 2010 with her thesis  The Story of Phosphorus: Sustainability implications of global phosphorus scarcity for food security.

Chris Reardon graduated in Autumn 2010 with his thesis on creating a sustainable Australian housing industry: utopian dream to measurable reality - a template to promote change.

Tanzi Smith graduated in Autumn 2010 with her thesis on ecological frameworks for sustainable communities: testing the theory in a developing country context.

Suzanne Grob graduated in Spring 2010 with her thesis Sustainable organisational procurement: pathway of transition for Australian organisations.

Kumi Abeysuriya graduated in Autumn 2008 with her thesis A pathway to sustainability in urban sanitation for developing Asian countries. Kumi won the 2004-05 ANZSEE PhD Prize for her conference paper on how urban sanitation can be funded sustainably without external aid. She joined the Institute as Senior Research Consultant on graduation.

Michelle Zeibots graduated in Autumn 2008 with her thesis Space, time, economics and asphalt: an investigation of induced traffic growth caused by urban motorway expansion and the implications this has for the sustainability of cities. Michelle also joined the Institute as Senior Research Consultant on graduation.

Dick Clarke (Masters by Research candidate) graduated in Autumn 2006 with his thesis Planning Controls and Sustainability - Planfirst's potential seen through a case study of Pittwater 21. Dick is now the Sustainability Director for the Building Design Association of NSW (opens an external site), a professional body which promotes excellence in building design.

Chris Riedy graduated in Spring 2005 with his thesis The Eye of the Storm: An Integral Perspective on Sustainable Development and Greenhouse Policy. Chris was selected for the Chancellor's List for 2005. He joined the Institute as a full-time member of staff on completion of his PhD and now works as a Research Director, with a focus on energy policy and climate change response. 

Simon Fane graduated in Spring 2005 with his thesis Evaluating conservation and re-use in the provision of urban water services. Simon took some time off to look after his two children and travel around Australia. He is now working at the Institute part-time.

Paul Crawford graduated in Autumn 2005 with his thesis Aiding aid: a monitoring and evaluation framework to enhance international aid effectiveness. Paul is now the Principal Consultant for Aid-IT Solutions Pty Ltd (opens an external site), a consultancy working in the aid sector to deliver better information, better performance and better aid for a better world.

Wahidul K. Biswas graduated in 2003. His main areas of research are energy, environment and sustainable development in developing countries. His thesis is titled Empowering Rural Poor through Renewable Energy Technologies for Sustainable Development in Bangladesh. Wahidul is now a Senior Lecturer at Curtin University of Technology (opens an external site) where he teaches postgraduate Cleaner Production tools and Environmental Studies units, and a core undergraduate engineering unit, Engineering for Sustainable Development. Apart from teaching, Wahidul's research involves life-cycle assessment in the Australian grains industry and the emission factor of nitrogen application.

Annie Bolitho (co-supervised by ISF) New Dimensions in Water Conservation; An Inter-animation of Writing and Water. Annie is now an independent consultant working in Victoria on water issues while completing a book based on her doctoral research. She was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for her thesis and her work will be published through the Sydney University/Pan MacMillan 'Thesis to Book' program.

Gabrielle Kuiper graduated in September 2002. Her thesis is titled Asking awkward questions about environmental information: state of the environment reporting in Australia, England and Wales. In June 2006 Gabrielle completed a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Sydney. Gabrielle is now Sustainability Manager at Investa Property Group (opens an external site). Gabrielle is also an occasional lecturer and public speaker. Recently she assisted Professor Peter Phibbs to develop and teach a new course on 'Making Sustainable Places' at the University of Western Sydney.

Karla Sperling gained the world's first PhD in Sustainable Futures when she graduated in May 2002. Her thesis is titled Overcoming legal impediments to urban planning for sustainability in the Sydney greater metropolitan region.