Niki Frantzeskaki is appointed Full Professor of Regional and Metropolitan Governance and Planning on 1 January 2022

Niki Frantzeskaki joins the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at the Faculty of Geosciences. She will be appointed as full professor with a chair in Regional and Metropolitan Governance and Planning on 1 January 2022.

Frantzeskaki is currently Research Professor on Urban Sustainability Transitions and Director of the Centre for Urban Transitions at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. From 2010 to 2019 she was a researcher and Associate Professor at the Dutch Research Institute For Transitions with Erasmus University Rotterdam. The professor has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles and released four books on urban sustainability transitions in 2017 and 2018 and 2020. She has also edited 18 special issues in top-ranked journals on sustainability, sustainability transitions and urban governance.

Wilco Hazeleger, Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences, welcomes her arrival: "With her outstanding work and expertise on urban transitions, with a focus on sustainability challenges and governance, she bridges key strategic themes of our University, namely Pathways to Sustainability and Institutions for Open Society."

International experience

Niki Frantzeskaki has rich international research experience. With a portfolio of on-going projects in Australia, such as the recently awarded National Environmental Science Program (NESP2) Hub on Sustainable Communities and Waste Management, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project on walkable and accessible urban spaces, ARC Discovery research project on sustainable SMEs driving urban transitions, the Canadian funded project TRANSFORM on the role of SMEs in transformative innovations and urban transitions, USA NSF funded project NATURA on nature-based solutions in cities globally and EU Horizon 2020 projects involvement: TIPPING + on pathways to post-carbon economies. She also contributes at an advisory role capacity to the following Horizon 2020 projects: CONNECTING NATURE, RENATURE, GO GREEN ROUTES all about research of nature-based solutions in cities. She is actively contributing as an author in GEO-5, GEO-6 and IPBES assessments. Hazeleger: ‘I am looking forward to welcome Niki at the faculty!’