Seth Westra, BE (Hons 1), MEngSc, PhD, MIEAust, CPEng (NPER), MAICD is Professor of Hydrology and Climate Risk at the University of Adelaide and a Founding Director of the Systems Cooperative. He has more than 20 years’ experience across both the private sector and academia, specialising in climate risk assessments, hydrology and the analysis complex systems. He has held numerous leadership positions, including as Program Leader of the One Basin Cooperative Research Centre—a 10-year $160 million program of research to support a productive, sustainable and resilient Murray Darling Basin, as well as being Director of the Water Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. He is also globally recognised as one of the world’s most influential experts in the field of climate risk, having recently been listed as a ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ in recognition of his research being in the top 0.1% by citation globally. In addition to his academic work, he regularly consults to government and private sector clients, and brings curiosity and a passion for generating real-world impact into all his work.

Holger Robert Maier, BE (Hons), PhD, MIEAust, CPENG, FMSSANZ is Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Adelaide and a Founding Director of the Systems Cooperative. He has more than 30 years’ experience in water resources planning and management, specialising in alterative water sources, decision support, multi-objective optimisation and trade-off analysis, climate risk assessment and mitigation, sensitivity, uncertainty and scenario analysis, decision-making under deep uncertainty, machine learning, and the development of integrated modelling and decision frameworks. Holger’s work is focused on improving industry practice and he has led or been involved with projects funded by six cooperative research centres, Water Research Australia, the Goyder Institute for Water Research, and a number of industry partners. He led the economics and strategic decisions research cluster for the Bushfire and Natural Hazard CRC from 2014-2021 and currently leads research projects for the Future Fuels and One Basin CRCs. Holger is a Fellow of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand and a recipient of the Biennial Medals of the International Environmental Modelling and Simulation Society and the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Graeme Clyde Dandy, BE(Hons), MEngSc, PhD, FTSE, FIEAust, CPENG, FMSSANZ is an Emeritus Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Adelaide. His interests are in the planning and management of water resources and environmental systems. In particular, he has carried out extensive research into the use of multi-objective optimisation techniques for the planning and operation of water supply and water distribution systems. He has also undertaken research into the use of machine learning techniques for forecasting hydrologic and water quality variables in natural and constructed systems. Graeme is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Engineers Australia and the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Aaron C. Zecchin, BSc, BE(hons), MMSc, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, the University of Adelaide. He has had over 13 years of experience in the university sector as a researcher and academic, and has worked across a broad array of projects ranging from fundamental research, to applied and contract research. Aaron has over 100 academic publications, and has attracted more than $3.6M in competitive research finding, including Australian Research Council Discovery and Linkage projects, and a range of CRC projects. Funded by the Australian Research Council, Aaron has worked on the analysis and simulation of water resource systems, involving a range of analytic and numerical methods, statistical signal processing, and evolutionary computational strategies. Funded by a range of Cooperative Research Centres, and through adopting an integrated and systems theoretic approach, Zecchin has worked closely with stakeholders from government and industry on projects relating to risk mitigation for natural hazards and the decarbonisation of gas networks.

Doug aims to contribute to improving the resilience of social, infrastructure and environmental systems against the complex risks associated with natural hazards and climate variability. Doug's research applies robust environmental modelling approaches to quantify these risks, with an interest in optimising risk management activities in order to further a communities' social, economic and environmental values. His interests include natural hazard risk, uncertainty, systems thinking and adaptive planning. Doug is a Westpac Future Leaders scholar, Associate Student at Natural Hazards Research Australia and a recipient of the University Medal at the University of Adelaide. Doug is a Director of the Systems Cooperative. He will complete his PhD studies in 2025.  

Sam Culley is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the field of Environmental Engineering at the University of Adelaide. He was also the quantitative foresight lead within the Strategic Foresight team in the Department of Premier and Cabinet (SA). His experience lies in applying systems thinking approaches to complex problems and developing strategies for decision making under deep uncertainty. Examples of this in the research space include projects funded by the Future Fuels CRC that work with a range of industry stakeholders to develop quantitative assessment tools for renewable energy systems, and a PhD in climate change adaptation that focused on performing stress-tests on complex environmental systems to identify key tipping points in the future. From his work within government, Sam has experience in facilitating participatory processes to develop exploratory scenarios, thereby improving the robustness of long-term strategies, and mapping out challenges and opportunities for the future of different sectors within SA, developing interventions in the present to shift towards a more desirable future.

Mark Brian Jaksa BE (Hons), PhD, FIEAust, CPEng, NER, APEC Engineer, IntPE(Aus) is Emeritus Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Australia, where he has been for more than 35 years. Prior to becoming an academic, he spent 4 years practicing as a consulting geotechnical and civil engineer in Adelaide and Canberra in Australia. At the University, he continued to consult in many aspects of geotechnical engineering, including foundation and retaining wall design, assessment and remediation of cracked structures, forensic assessment, laboratory and in situ testing, slope stability assessment, and site characterisation. He has published more than 250 papers on various aspects of geotechnical engineering research and teaching. His primary areas of research expertise are in the characterisation of the spatial variability of soils, probabilistic analyses, artificial intelligence, ground improvement, unsaturated soils, lunar geotechnics, and enhancing learning in geotechnical engineering. He is a former Chair of the Australian Geomechanics Society and Vice President for Australasia of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.

Cael is completing his PhD at The University of Adelaide, specialising in cyber-risk modelling for water infrastructure. His research focuses on improving the resilience of critical water systems against cyber threats using robust systems modelling approaches. Outside of his doctoral research, Cael actively works in water security, addressing supply-demand risks and strategic water resource planning. His broader interests include effective systems modelling practices, the societal value of water, and addressing future challenges in sustainable water management.

Jing Tian is a graduate civil and environmental engineer specialising in complex system integration, modelling, and sustainability assessment. Her work bridges technical design and adaptive planning, with experience in utility sensitivity analysis, scenario-based experimental design, and consulting for sustainable development solutions. Currently a CRC-sponsored PhD candidate, her research explores the interactions between renewable energy production systems and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on aligning decision-maker actions with long-term social, technical, and environmental outcomes. She has contributed to interdisciplinary projects involving water security, energy mass-balance modelling, and decision support tool development. Jing also serves as the HDR student representative for her school and is expected to complete her PhD in 2025.

Chanvi Singh, BPsych (Hons), PhD, is an organisational psychology researcher and practitioner specialising in organisational change, workforce strategy and the human dimensions of complex systems. Her work brings together behavioural and social science, systems thinking and applied research to help organisations understand complex workforce challenges and translate evidence into practical, implementable solutions.

Chanvi has experience across academia, consulting, government and industry, with work spanning organisational transformation, hybrid work, leadership capability, psychosocial safety, workforce development and technology adoption. She has led and contributed to large-scale research and consulting projects, including national workforce and behavioural research, organisational diagnostics and evaluations, and strategic advisory work. Her research focuses particularly on how organisations and people navigate technological and organisational change, and how evidence can support healthier, more effective and resilient systems.

Michael Leonard, BE (Civil) (Hons 1), GDipEd, PhD (Water Resources), MIEAust, is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Adelaide and a Director of the Systems Cooperative. He has more than 20 years of research and consulting experience, specialising in stochastic modelling and the assessment of risk and uncertainty in hydrological and water-resource systems. His expertise encompasses hydroclimatic data generation, flood and drought risk, compound and multivariate extremes, climate-change impacts, water security, hydraulic modelling, and the modelling and optimisation of water-distribution systems. Michael has contributed to major government and industry projects, including the generation of more than 2,000 hydrologically corrected climate series to support regional water strategies, studies of joint flooding from multiple drivers, and expert evidence for the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and has substantial experience developing quantitative software, interactive decision-support tools and methods for analysing and visualising large datasets. Michael also holds a Graduate Diploma in Education and is an experienced educator and trainer in hydrology, statistics, uncertainty and risk.

Babak Zolghadr-Asli, BSc, MSc, PhD is an Associate Lecturer in Water Engineering, Hydroinformatics, and Environmental Systems at Adelaide University. His research focuses on developing systems-based approaches to address complex water and environmental challenges under climate change and uncertainty by applying systems thinking, computational modelling, and artificial intelligence across hydrology, water resources engineering, environmental risk assessment, digital water engineering, and environmental governance. Babak has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and several authored and edited books in water engineering, hydroinformatics, and computational intelligence. His current work explores the application of artificial intelligence, including large language model-based multi-agent systems, to enhance decision support for complex water and environmental systems. Babak collaborates with universities, government agencies, industry partners, and local councils to develop practical decision-support tools and risk assessment frameworks for climate adaptation, resilient infrastructure, and sustainable water management. His recent work includes contributions to the CSIRO-led Enhanced Resilient Asset Delivery (ERAD) program, supporting the development of evidence-based approaches for climate risk assessment, infrastructure resilience, and adaptive decision-making.