Professor Deo Karan Prasad

In the Media

Prasad, D. (2014, January 28). Sustainable built environment professors receive Order of Australia. The Fifth Estate. Retrieved from http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/people/sustainable-built-environment-professors-receive-order-of-australia/58546

Prasad, D. (2014 March, 22). Predictions of Pleasantville threaten to ruin identity of inner city areas. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/predictions-of-pleasantville-threaten-to-ruin-identity-of-inner-city-areas-20140321-358m3.html

Prasad, D. (2015, August 21). It’s Just Human Design & Nature. Sourceable.net. Retrieved from https://sourceable.net/its-just-human-design-and-nature/

Prasad, D. (2015, September 3). Smart Cities. Indian Link. Retrieved from http://www.indianlink.com.au/smart-cities/

Membership

National

In 2009 Deo was appointed an honorary ambassador for Sydney by the Business Events Sydney (NSW Government) to help in promoting Sydney as a high priority destination for scientific and other conferences and events.  He has chaired major congresses such as the Solar World Congress ( Adelaide 2001) and the Asia Pacific Solar Conference in Sydney (Sydney Darling Harbour 2008 and 2011).  Deo has Chaired the Australia New Zealand Solar Energy Society and been a Australian board member of the International Solar Energy Society. He also has been the Federal Minister of Energy’s appointment on the Board of Federal Government’s Energy Research and Development Corporation, elected Board member of the Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia and chaired the Standards Australia committee on energy in buildings.  Deo was the founding director of the NSW House Energy Rating Management Body (HMB) during which time it became a viable approach to sustainability assessment for buildings in Australia.  It now has been transferred to industry to run as a leading body underpinning building environmental assessment in Australia (ABSA).  During his time HMB helped create in excess of 220 small and medium businesses.   Deo also came up with the vision for the now national Sustainable Living Competition for high schools in Australia.  This is open to and engages all high school students in understanding and creating new paradigms for sustainable living in our communities.  This project was a finalist for Eureka Awards, 2001.  Deo has been part of numerous Australian Trade Delegations in the areas of clean energy/green buildings (eg Korea, Taiwan, Dubai & China).  Most recent of these include the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering delegation to Korea on ‘Green Growth’ (2010) and he led the NSW Government delegation on Low Carbon cities to the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010.  

International

Deo sits on numerous Boards and Advisory Committees in this field including the  National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Solar Buildings Research Network (Concordia Montreal – Board member and now Scientific Committee), United Nations Environment Program’s ‘UNEP Eco-Peace Leadership Centre’ Board (Seoul), ‘UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development’ (Shanghai), ‘Beijing Energy and Environment Centre’ (part of Beijing City Government), ‘UNEP (Asia Pacific) Special committee on sustainable cities’ (Bangkok), ‘International Solar Energy Society Board’ (Freiburg, Germany), ‘National Fenestration Rating Council USA’ (expert) and BiPV expert panel on BCA Singapore Zero Energy Building.  Deo chaired the Asia Pacific Global Civil Society Forum for four years.  In this role he hosted the Asia Pacific meeting at UNSW, Sydney in 2008 on International Environmental Governance.  Deo is a consultant to a number of cities in Asia Pacific on sustainability matters through his work for the special committee of UNEP.  He recently convened a White Paper Series on sustainable cities (2009) for the UNEP and co-wrote the Green Universities Guide on Infrastructure Development (2012) for the Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES/UNEP).  Deo regularly contributes to the work of International Energy Agency (IEA) in this area as well. He led an IEA expert task on building integrated photovoltaics and co-wrote a commissioned IEA book on the subject (designing with Solar Power) in 2004.  Since 2009 Deo has been on the Academic Advisory Board to the Council of the Universiti Technology Petronas – a group of eight Professors from around the world under the Chairmanship of Tun Dr Mahhatir Mohammed the current Chancellor of the university.  UTP has a goal of reaching the top 200 research universities by 2020 with considerable funding from their sponsor Petronas.  

Practice

Deo is a consultant to a number of cities in Asia Pacific on sustainability matters through his work for the special committee of UNEP. He is currently convening a White Paper on sustainable cities for the UNEP. Deo regularly contributes to the work of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in this area as well. He led an IEA expert task on building integrated photovoltaics and co-wrote a commissioned IEA book on the subject in 2004.

He is a key contributor to the UN Decade for Education for Sustainability at international meetings as well as locally (member of the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee on sustainability education 2007). In 2009 Deo has been selected by the prestigious Asia Pacific Green Building Journal ‘FuturArc’ as one of only two Australians to rank among the 18 most influential people promoting sustainable buildings in the Asia Pacific region.