Research Theme Coordinator

Professor Sebastian Pfautsch

School of Social Sciences and the
Urban Transformations Research Centre
s.pfautsch@westernsydney.edu.au

Sebastian is a Professor of Urban Planning and Management in the School of Social Sciences and co-lead in People-centred Sustainable Precinct Design at the Urban Transformations Research Centre. In his interdisciplinary research he collaborates with colleagues at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences, School of Education, Institute for Culture and Society, and others. He is the Director of SIMPaCT, a large-scale research project that will result in AI-operated park irrigation systems for optimal cooling during hot summers. He sits on the panel of Greening our City, works as independent advisor for the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer and co-developed the first Handbook for Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) for Standards Australia.

Sebastian has a Master in Forest Science and Management and a PhD (summa cum laude) in Tree Physiology. Both degrees were awarded from the University of Freiburg in Germany. For more than 15 years he studied the responses of trees and forests to gradual and extreme environmental impacts, including heat waves, drought, fire, changes in the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ and declining groundwater tables. Sebastian investigated these responses in natural ecosystems across Australia and under controlled conditions in greenhouses and other research facilities, working from microscopic to landscape scales.

In 2017, he joined Western Sydney University as Research Theme Fellow for Environment & Sustainability and took up a Senior Lecturer position with a focus on UGI. He began applying his knowledge about the physiological functioning of trees and vegetation more broadly to an urban context. Since then, Sebastian studied the impact of climate change on cities and where the opportunities and limits of UGI are when mitigating increasing heat. Today his applied projects deal with heat mitigation far beyond UGI and include surface and building materials, engineered shade and water infrastructure, smart city technology and urban planning.

His high-quality research output is documented in the form of more than 90 peer-reviewed research papers, technical reports and journal articles. Sebastian's work features regularly in the media, which in 2021 produced more than 350 headlines in 21 countries, was published in 5 languages and had a potential online reach of more than 1 billion people. Recent highlights were working with the BBC on the documentary Life at 50C – Heat hitting home in Australia and joining Costa Georgiadis on the ABC’s Gardening Australia program to explain the importance of urban trees for cooling.

As Research Theme Coordinator, Sebastian creates strategic content that aims to increase interdisciplinarity and industry reach of research developed across the institutes and schools at Western. He assists early- and mid-career academics to develop their research profiles. He provides support to build inter- and trans-disciplinary research teams that can tackle the wicked problems of urban development under climate change. Supported by the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research, Enterprise and International), Sebastian established and administrates the annual Hands-on Research Grant Scheme that provides funding for early-career researchers. He also produces the Up4Research podcast which shines a spotlight on the diverse and important work of our scientists in the Sydney Basin.