ABOUT

I am the Director of the Future Regions Lab, and Professor of Economic Geography at the School of Social Sciences, University of Western Australia. Prior to academia, I spent 20 years as an economic development and strategic consultant for local and state governments, working internationally across Australia, the United States, Indonesia, and Japan. My research focuses on the global distribution of resources—particularly mining (critical minerals), energy and agriculture—and the drivers of regional competitiveness and uneven development. A central strand of my work examines innovation in the peripheries and net‑zero transitions in mining and resource industries, including global supply chains for critical minerals and battery industries.

I have won multiple large competitive research grants including from the Australian Research Council (ARC), and am Chair of the Australian Academy of Sciences National Committee for Geographical Sciences. I am on the editorial board of 5 leading international journals, including the Subject Editor for Progress in Economic Geography, and the national co-convener of the Institute of Australian Geographers Economic Geography Study Group. I am regularly asked for comment by media and have published over 95 research outputs in leading scholarly journals, as book chapters, and produced industry reports for National, State and local governments.