ABOUT

Dr Mark Diesendorf researches, teaches, consults and campaigns for an ecologically sustainable, socially just and more peaceful society. His research is in the interdisciplinary fields of sustainable energy, energy policy, theory of sustainability and ecological economics. 

He has a BSc with first class honours in physics from the University of Sydney and a PhD in applied mathematics from the University of New South Wales (nowadays called UNSW Sydney). He is currently Honorary Associate Professor in Environment and Society in the School of Humanities & Languages, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney.

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From 2004 to 2016 he was Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW Sydney. His earlier positions include Principal Research Scientist in Australia's national research organisation, CSIRO (1975–1985), senior lecturer in Human Ecology at the Australian National University (1994–1996), Professor of Environmental Science and Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney (1996-2001), Director of the private consultancy Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd (2001-2007) and Education Program Leader of the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living from 2017 until it closed in 2019.

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Based on his belief that science, technology and economics should serve the community at large, he has been at various times secretary of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science (Australian Capital Territory), co-founder and vice-president of the Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia, co-founder and president of the original Australasian Wind Energy Association, president of the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics (ANZSEE) and vice-president of Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment (APACE).

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He is co-editor, with Clive Hamilton, of the interdisciplinary book Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future (1997) and author of Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy (UNSW Press, 2007), Climate Action: A Campaign Manual for Greenhouse Solutions (UNSW Press, 2009), Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change (Routledge & UNSW Press, 2014) and, with Rod Taylor, The Path to a Sustainable Civilisation: Technological, Socioeconomic and Political Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

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For recreation, he enjoys bushwalking and kayaking.