Researcher

Professor Susan Margaret Thompson

My Expertise

Healthy built environments, healthy planning, healthy cities; cultural diversity and local government; how meanings of home change through experiences of significant loss (migration, & separation & divorce); personal safety in urban environment; community development through community gardens.

Fields of Research (FoR)

Urban and regional planning, Public health, Community planning

Biography

My academic career, researching and teaching in the built environment disciplines, is grounded in urban planning practice. My research informs and connects the community of scholars, policy makers and practitioners. Its focus is on the relationship between people and place, building understandings about the ways in which places can be planned to best support individuals and diverse communities. This work is facilitated by the use of...view more
My academic career, researching and teaching in the built environment disciplines, is grounded in urban planning practice. My research informs and connects the community of scholars, policy makers and practitioners. Its focus is on the relationship between people and place, building understandings about the ways in which places can be planned to best support individuals and diverse communities. This work is facilitated by the use of qualitative research methodologies, of which I was a pioneer in the built environment disciplines in Australia. I have made significant and innovative contributions to teaching practice, curriculum development and the scholarship of learning and teaching in urban planning. I have had a career long involvement with professional development, championing interdisciplinary collaboration in the areas of cultural diversity, community safety and health. Since 2005 I have actively worked at the intersection of planning and public health – across my research, teaching and advocacy activities. My contributions have advanced understandings about the supportive nature of the built environment for health and wellbeing as part of everyday living, contributing to legislative innovation, policy and practice to enhance the strategic relationship between urban planning and health. My service contributions to the Built Environment at UNSW and the planning profession beyond have been sustained and significant. I have received numerous awards for my work, including the prestigious Sidney Luker Medal (2015) in recognition of my contribution to healthy urban planning in Australia. I am one of only three women to receive the award since its inception in 1956.  In 2017 I was awarded the Australian Urban Research Medal.   

My Grants

Significant Research Grants

2023  – People, Place, Culture: Consilience in the development of health precincts for living well futures (ADA Partnership Grant, $10,000) Role: CI

2022 – Wellbeing and Cities: The social sciences of post--pandemic urban life (ADA Partnership Grant, $8,500) Role: CI

2021/2023 –  A Scenario Planning Tool: Improving the bikeability of our cities (ARC Linkage Grant with partners Transport for NSW, NSW Office of Sport, Penrith City Council, Wollongong City Council, $267,703) Role: CI

2020/2022 – Better Parks, Healthier for All? (United Kingdom Research & Innovation and National Health and Medical Research Council – Built Environment Prevention Research Scheme, $1.45 million) Role: CI

2019/2020 – NSW built environment practitioners’ perspectives on place-making opportunities that deliver health and wellbeing outcomes (Maridulu Budyari Gumul: Healthy Urban Environments Clinical Academic Group, $22,000) Role: CI.

2018/2020 – ChillOUT: Smart Social Spaces Creating Connected Green Places (Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, $879,338) Role: CI

2017/2019 - Smart Social Spaces: Smart Street Furniture Supporting Social Health (Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, $657,742) Role: CI

2017/2019 - Translating health evidence to support healthy planning strategies for higher density living (Landcom Communities of Practice, with UTS and U Syd, $1.25million) Role: CI

2016/2017 - NSW Healthy Urban Development Checklist Project (NSW Health, with AECOM, $120,000) Role: Lead CI.

2010/2014 - NSW Research & Workforce Development Program on Healthy Built Environments (NSW Health, $1.5million) Role: Lead CI.

 

 

 

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (University of Sydney)

Master Town and Country Planning (University of Sydney)

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (Macquarie University)

Diploma of Education (Macquarie University)

Certificate as Town and Country Planner (Ordinance 4, Local Government Act 1919)

 


My Awards

  • PIA (National Division) Commendation for Planning Research: Kent, J. L., & Thompson, S. (2020). ‘Healthy Cities’. In Rogers, D., Keane, A., Nelson, J. and Alizadeh, T. (Eds.) Understanding Urbanism (pp.195-210). Camden: Palgrave McMillan, 2023
  • Good Design Awards, Outstanding Innovation - ChillOUT Tree (Street Furniture Australia, Georges River Council, UNSW, USyd) 2022 
  • PIA (National Division) Award Best Planning Ideas – Small Project - ChillOUT Hubs - Creating Connected Green Places, 2021
  • ARC Post Graduate Council Student and Supervisor Awards - Nominee Award for PhD student supervision, 2021
  • PIA (NSW Division) Award Best Planning Ideas – Small Project - ChillOUT Hubs - Creating Connected Green Places, 2020
  • PIA (NSW Division) Commendation Award for Excellence – Cutting Edge Research and Teaching – Planning Australia’s Healthy Built Environments (Kent & Thompson, published 2019 by Routledge), 2020
  • PIA (NSW Division) Commendation Award for Excellence – Cutting Edge Research and Teaching – ‘Healthy Built Environments Column’, New Planner, 2010-2019, Awarded 2019
  • Committee for Sydney, Smart City Awards: Highly Commended Cross Sectoral Collaboration – Smart Social Spaces – Development of ChillOut Hubs, 2019
  • Public Health Research & Practice Excellence Awards – Highly Commended Practice Paper: Built Environment Interventions for Human and Planetary Health, 2019
  • Australian Urban Research Medal, 2017 http://www.acrn-soac.com.au/awards/
  • Sidney Luker Memorial Medalist, 2015
  • Elected Fellow, Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), 2012
  • PIA (NSW Division) Award for Excellence 2012 – Cutting Edge Research and Teaching – Healthy Built Environments: A Review of the Literature
  • PIA (WA Division) Commendation 2012 – Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning (2012, 2nd Edition, Cambridge University Press)
  • Visiting Fellow, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom, 2009
  • PIA (National Division) Award for Excellence in Planning 2008 – Planning Scholarship, Research, or Teaching – Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning (2007, Cambridge University Press)
  • PIA (NSW Division) Award for Excellence in Planning 2007 – Planning Scholarship, Research, or Teaching for Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning (2007, Cambridge University Press)
  • Faculty of the Built Environment Research Excellence Award 2007 – Senior Researcher
  • Merit Award for Research and Communications, Australian Institute of Landscape Architects National Awards, Bountiful Harvest: Community Gardens and Neighbourhood Renewal in Waterloo (Bartolomei, Corkery, Judd and Thompson), 2004
  • Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (NSW), Excellence Award for Research and Communication, Bountiful Harvest, 2004
  • Ashfield Council Australia Day, Community Achievement Award, 1998
  • Royal Australian Planning Institute (NSW) Award for Planning Excellence (with ERM), Safer by Design Development Control Plan - Sth Sydney City Council, 1997
  • Royal Australian Planning Institute (NSW) Award for Planning Excellence (Student Assignment), Major student project on Summer Hill, 1994

My Engagement

Membership of Advisory Boards and Expert Panels (selected)

  • Witness, Australian Government House of Representatives Committee - Inquiry into diabetes, 2024
  • Member, International Society of Urban Health (ISUH) Expert Advisory Council, 2022-present
  • Board Member, Henry Halloran Trust (The University of Sydney), 2019 – present
  • Member, NSW Healthy Planning Expert Working Group, 2011- present
  • Executive Board Member, International Society of Urban Health, 2015-2020
  • Advisor to the New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment – National Science Challenge – Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities (2015 & 2018)
  • Member, NSW Minister for Health’s Advisory Committee on Preventive Health (2014-2016)
  • NSW Shade Working Group, NSW Skin Cancer Prevention (secretariat NSW Cancer Council), 2012 - present
  • National Heart Foundation Steering Committees for: Developer Guidelines for Healthy Planning (2010-11); Healthy by Design Legislative and Policy Review (2008)
  • National Preventative Health Taskforce Obesity Working Group (2008-09)
  • Australian ANZAPS Representative, First World Planning Schools Congress, Shanghai, China, 2001

 

Key Editorial Roles for Scholarly Journals

  • Editorial Board Member, Planning Theory and Practice, 2015 - present
  • State Editor, Urban Planning and Research, 1997 – present
  • Founding Editorial Board Member, Cities & Health, 2016 – 2024

 

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Location

Arts, Design & Architecture

Contact

54395
54507

ORCID as entered in ROS

orcid_icon https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9689-1490

UNSW Sydney NSW 2052 Australia Telephone +61 2 93851000
Authorised by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research)
UNSW CRICOS Provider Code: 00098G ABN: 57 195 873 179

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