Kees Dorst

Kees Dorst was trained as an Industrial Design Engineer at Delft University of Technology and was granted a PhD there in 1997, with high distinction. He has worked as a product designer for various design firms and as a researcher, he has studied the ways in which designers work.

Currently, he is Professor of Design at the faculty of Design, Architecture and Building of the University of Technology, Sydney. He also holds a professorship in 'Entrepreneurial Design of Intelligent Systems' at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. He works as a consultant and lectures at universities and design schools throughout the world. He has published numerous articles and five books – most recently the books ‘Understanding Design – 175 reflections on being a designer’ (2006) and ‘Design Expertise’ (2009) with Bryan Lawson. Currently he is working on an invited book for MIT Press, on 'Frame Creation - a design-based methodology for driving innovation'.

He is founder and director of the NSW Designing Out Crime Centre, an initiative of the NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Marcus Felson

Marcus Felson is currently Professor at the Criminal Justice Department at Texas State University. He has been a leader both in crime theory ("the routine activity approach") but also in applying that theory to reducing crime. His core argument is that the routines of everyday life provide opportunity for the illegal activities that feed on them. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Professor Felson has been a guest lecturer in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. He is the author of more than 80 professional papers, as well as co-editor (with Ronald V. Clarke) of Business and Crime Prevention and Routine Activity and Rational Choice, and co-author of Opportunity Makes the Thief.

Heather MacDonald

Heather MacDonald received her PhD in Planning and Public Policy from Rutgers University in New Jersey (USA). She was an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, where she served as Chair of Department for some years, before moving to Sydney in 2008. She joined UTS in 2010. Her research has focused on affordable housing policy and finance, and the role of spatial analysis in urban policy. She is the author of Unlocking the Census with GIS (2004), and Urban Policy and the Census (forthcoming 2011). She is currently engaged in two research projects, one investigating whether there is ethnic discrimination in private rental housing in Sydney, the other investigating the impact of planning regulations on housing affordability in six Australian cities.