Professor John Fien
RMIT PROFILE | ORCID ID | PRACTICE WEB
John is a Professor in the School of Architecture and Urban Design and teaches in the RMIT Master of Disaster, Design and Development degree (MoDDD). He has helped prepare and teach all courses for online delivery in the degree. He is now the convenor of the two courses related to the capstone Industry Project in which students apply their learnings from the degree prior to graduation.
John’s special interests in the field of disaster prevention and recovery focus on climate change and how systemic design can help protect communities vulnerable to flooding and coastal damage from severe storms.
John has worked at Griffith and Swinburne Universities as well as RMIT and has led development projects and evaluations in several countries, including: Kenya, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines and Fiji. He is a senior researcher with over 120 publications. Research for these works has been supported by grants totally $AUD8 million, and include eleven ARC grants, four CRCs grants, and grants from both national organizations (e.g. AHURI, Melbourne Water) and international agencies (e.g. UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, OECD and WWF International).
As a PhD supervisor, John has guided over 30 students to successful completion on topics as diverse as quantifying vulnerability to climate change and climate policy in Vietnam to national park management in Australia and The Philippines, Landcare, catchment management, forest certification, and remote Indigenous housing. All PhD research students work within a sustainability framework that integrates environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability.
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