Professor Tony Wong is Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities in Australia, with research hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Singapore. He pioneered the water sensitive cities approach for concurrently addressing the social, environmental and economic challenges of urban water management.
He has led a large number of award-winning projects based around the adaptation of nature-based solutions for urban water management.
Wong has advanced new understandings of the relationship between the societal and biophysical dimensions of water security and city waterscapes – enabling solutions to be underpinned by creative design through blending bio-mimicry with engineering and architectural knowledge and practices for delivering sustainable urban water outcomes.
In 2010 he received the prestigious Sir John Holland Award as Australia’s Civil Engineer of the Year, cited as having defined “a new paradigm for design of urban environments that blends creativity with technical and scientific rigour. A sequence of his achievements in Australia over the last 30 years in research and development, technology, urban design and policy has diffused globally, and increasingly amongst developing nations.
He was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2014, and in 2018, he received the IWA World Water Award.