Niusha Esmaeilpoorarabi Author

Tan Yigitcanlar is an eminent Australian researcher with international recognition and impact in the field of urban studies and planning. He is a Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Along with this post, he carries out the following positions: Honorary Professor at the School of Technology, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil; Director of the Australia-Brazil Smart City Research and Practice Network; Lead of QUT Smart City Research Group; and Co-Director of QUT City 4.0 Lab. He is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. He has been responsible for research, teaching, training, and capacity building programs on the fields of urban studies and planning in esteemed Australian, Brazilian, Finnish, Japanese, and Turkish universities. His research aims to address contemporary urban planning and development challenges that are economic, societal, spatial, governance, or technology related in nature. The main foci of his research interests, within the broad field of urban studies and planning, are clustered around the following three interdisciplinary themes: smart technologies, communities, cities, and urbanism; sustainable and resilient cities, communities, and urban ecosystems; and knowledge-based development of cities and innovation districts. He has been providing research consultancy services to all tier governments (i.e., federal, state, local), as well as international corporations and non-governmental organisations in Australia and overseas. These services help government and industry form their key strategies, become more resilient, and be better prepared for emerging disruptive conditions. He has disseminated his research findings extensively, including over 300 articles published in high-impact journals and 25 key reference books published by esteemed international publishing houses. His research outputs have been widely cited and have influenced urban policy, practice, and research internationally. His research was cited over 20,000 times, resulting in an h-index of over 80 (Google Scholar). According to the 2022 Science-wide Author Databases of Standardised Citation Indicators, amongst the urban and regional planning scholars, he is ranked #1 in Australia and a top-10 ranked researcher worldwide. He was also recognised as an Australian Research Superstar in the Social Sciences Category at The Australian’s 2020 Research Special Report.

Surabhi Pancholi is a researcher with international recognition and impact in the field of architecture, urban design, and urban planning, particularly specialised in place making. She is currently a Lecturer of Architecture at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. As a firm believer in collaboration and interdisciplinary approach, her research works have gained international recognition on the topics of multidimensional place making, design principles, strategies and planning processes of urban knowledge, and innovation clusters named variously as smart cities, knowledge cities, smart innovation districts, technology hubs, creative precincts, and the like. She has a successful record of extensively publishing in high-ranked and esteemed international journals in the field of urban design and urban planning. She has developed a strong network at local and international levels by her collaborative projects and joint research publications, frequently presenting in international conferences and seminars. In her professional roles, as architect and urban planner, she has worked on a range of prestigious commercial, residential, institutional, and government projects nationally and internationally. She advocates the adoption of a multidisciplinary perspective and an integrated approach for making cities and clusters more people-oriented, economy-wise, environmentally sustainable, and societally integrated.

Niusha Esmaeilpoorarabi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Tehran, Iran. She earned a PhD at Queensland University of Technology and her master’s and bachelor’s studies at the University of Tehran, specialising in architectural design and urban studies. Niusha’s research aims to address interdisciplinary themes from architecture, urban studies, and social sciences fields. The main focus of her research includes knowledge-based development of cities, neighbourhoods and in particular innovation districts; her research also supports the sustainable growth of neighbourhoods and communities. Her works have been published in high-ranked journals and received attention from the industry. Since 2019, she has been collaborating with several organisations, including the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Iran Association of Science Parks and Innovation Organisations, to deliver workshops and training events promoting place making and community engagement in innovation districts. Additionally, she has been involved in a wide range of national and international projects in industry, from the planning process to designing phases. This also includes multiscale developments from housing projects to public urban spaces.

Rosemary Adu-McVie is a researcher with international recognition in the field of urban planning, particularly specialised in the classification of innovation districts. She is currently a Lecturer of Property Studies at the Department of Survey and Lands, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Lae, Papua New Guinea. She is a practitioner-turn-academic with about two decades of industrial experience in the field of property management and urban valuations. Her research works focus on innovation districts and the like, covering the topics of the evolution of innovation districts, multidimensional classification of innovation districts, performance assessment of innovation districts, and innovation district typology. She has successfully published in high-ranked and esteemed international journals in the field of urban planning and built environment. She has developed a strong network at local and international levels through her collaborative projects and research publications.