Executive Team

Rafat Alam is the Centre Manager of the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE). The Centre’s intent is to change the way we view indoor air quality, to significantly reduce the burden by creating healthy shared indoor air environments around the world. Rafat was born in a humble household of Bangladesh. He moved to Australia in 2008 to peruse his undergraduate degree. He completed a Bachelor of Business Administration, and Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting at the University of Canberra. Having completed his studies, Rafat has worked in the higher education sector for more than 13 years. He has been a business manager of several central university divisions and 2 faculties at the University of Canberra, School Manager of Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University, and the Lead Business Advisor to the Executives of the University of Southern Queensland. He was the recipient of multiple awards throughout his professional and academic career, including the Vice-Chancellor Excellence Award in 2012 and 2016, respectively (University of Canberra).

Lidia Morawska is Distinguished Professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia; the Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at QUT, a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization (WHO); and the Centre Director for the ARC Training Centre for Advanced Building Systems Against Airborne Infection Transmission (THRIVE) ho sted at QUT. Lidia also holds positions of Vice- Chancellor Fellow, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey, UK; and Adjunct Professor, Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. An author of over 1,000 publication, Lidia has been involved at the executive level with a number of relevant national/international professional bodies, is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and is acting as an advisor to the WHO. She is the recipient of numerous scientific awards.

Lindy Burton is a professionally registered architect, specialised in the design of complex public and institutional buildings and received 15 professional design awards. An Associate Professor of Architecture and the Design for Health program co-leader at QUT, Burton’s commercial research expertise extends her professional practice through integrating biophilic, salutogenic and eudemonic architecture, in complex building environments. She is appointed as a board director of the Board of Architects of Queensland, a referee for the Queensland Development Tribunal, and is the Australian regional editor for the International Journal of Architectural Research (Q1). Burton has strong skills in project managing large, collaborative projects with industry and end-user focus.

Professor Geoff Hanmer is the Managing Director of ARINA, a consultancy specialising in educational facilities and particularly the higher education sector. He is also an academic, teaching construction at UTS, where he is a Professional Fellow and at the University of Adelaide where he is an Adjunct Professor. Professor Geoff Hanmer has expertise in research on building construction, integration of engineering sub – systems and the building regulatory framework, including the International Construction Code, the Australian National Construction Code (NCC) and standards.

Professor Jason Monty is Head of Department and a Professor with the Fluid Mechanics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Melbourne. He is globally recognised for novel experimentation and analysis towards understanding complex air flow patterns that are of critical importance to airborne infectious disease spread. Professor Monty has recently become involved in the fight against airborne transmission in hospitals, developing and commercialising a novel personal ventilation hood for containing virus in infectious hospitalised patients and building a simulation room for indoor airflow studies funded by the Biomedical Translation Bridge Medical Research Future Fund (BTB MRFF) program.

Professor Ristovski is an atmospheric scientist with over 25 years of experience in the general area of aerosol sciences. He is a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and was the inaugural head of school. He is currently the editor in-chief of Atmospheric Environment X. He has supervised over 35 PhD students to completion and published over 270 peer reviewed journal publications related to various aspects of airborne particle pollution andclimate. He is leading a research group of 4 postdoctoral fellows and over 10 postgraduate students. In the past several years he and his team were involved in a number of projects related to airborne infection transmission. His team is investigating what are the key factors influencing airborne virus survival and how this knowledge can be utilised to reduce airborne infection transmissions. He is a recipient of a number of grants both from the Australian government and industry (over $11 million in total) as well as international grants.

Dr. Bo Xia is a Professor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology. His research areas focus on construction management, sustainable buildings, and age-friendly communities and cities.In particular, he received research funding from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Charted Institute ofBuilders (CIOB) and Australian Research Council (ARC) to look into how to provide age-friendly built environment to help older Australians ageing in place. His research findings havebeen published in internationally recognized journals and presented at important conferences. Currently, Prof Xia acts as the editor of International Journal of Construction Management,amember of Editorial Boards for the ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, Advancesin Civil Engineering, and Built Environment Project and Asset Management