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What role can urban experimentation play in making cities more sustainable? Our new paper published in Nature Cities revisits the concept of urban sustainability experiments, first introduced in Bai et al. (2010) , and reflects on what has been learned over the past 15 years.   This paper, co-authored by ARC Laureate Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai and an international team, reviews evidence from eight global databases documenting nearly 2,000 urban experiments. These ini

What does it look like when cutting-edge sustainability theory meets the concrete reality of a city? For ARC Laureate Fellow Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai and the Transformative Cities Lab, one answer is the initiative now unfolding in Kitakyushu, Japan, called “Next Horizon Sustainable City”.

The Chief Editor of Nature Climate Change at Springer Nature, Dr. Bronwyn Wake , will be presenting her talk "Publishing in Nature Portfolio journals" at the Australian National University on Monday November 10th 2025. Dr. Wake will discuss what the editors are looking for when considering submissions, and will give an overview of the publication process. With her 13 years of experience in editorial work at the Nature Publishing Group, Dr. Wake's talk will be a great opportu

Kitakyushu City (Japan) is known for its' forward-looking and assertive culture in sustainability practices, embodying the notion of an altruistic city  (1) by its actions. ARC Laureate Fellow Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai had the opportunity to meet with Mayor Kazuhisa Takeuchi in Kitakyushu City on September 30, 2025. The meeting with Mayor Takeuchi and the following series meetings in the city was a great opportunity to learn about Kitakyushu City’s current initiative

Sustainability Science Best Paper Award 2024 (Nature Springer) Congratulations to Dr. Prabhasri Herath (Australian National University, ICEDS) and Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai who were awarded the  Best Paper Award 2024  organized by  Sustainability Science . Their paper “ Benefits and co-benefits of urban green infrastructure for sustainable cities: six current and emerging themes ”  was selected as one of the winners for papers published by the journal in 2024. The

Image courtesy the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Congratulations to ARC Laureate Fellow Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai...

What should cities focus on in an era of interconnected challenges? A globally co-designed urban research agenda reveals pressing priorities for sustainability and resilience: 1) Advancing urban sustainability transformations, 2) Ensuring equity, 3) Boosting innovation in Low to Lower-Middle Income Countries, 4) Managing complexity and systemic risks, and 5) Navigating environmental change. So how does one advance these priority areas of research?

Join ARC Laureate Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai today with Prof. Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick,   Dr. Steve Lade and Dr. Marwan El...

Image credit by Fox via Pexels . 19 critical factors driving success in community waste management are found from the analysis of 26...

A paper published by Dr. Yuan Peng, Dr. Reza Fazeli, Mr. Wentao Ye and Distinguished Porfessor Xuemei Bai investigates consumer...

Join ARC Laureate Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai and Professor of Climate Science in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at...

Dr. Nguyen (left) and Prox. Bai (right) at the 2nd IPCC Lead Authors' Meeting in Mombasa, Kenya (July 21st 2025) ARC Laureate Fellow...

ARC Laureate Professor Xuemei Bai’s sixth and final Science Expert Voices article was published on July 11th, where she argues for a...

The ANU Computational Media L ab is pleased to invite interested people to the AI for Climate, Safety and Environment Workshop on...

ARC Laureate Fellow Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai recently concluded a lecture tour of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore (June 18th - July 4th 2025).

We are excited to invite applications for three PhD positions as part of the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship project, “Cities as Transformative Agents for a Climate-safe Future”, led by Distinguished Professor Xuemei Bai at the Fenner School of Environment and Society , The Australian National University National University. This is a unique opportunity to join a dynamic, interdisciplinary team tackling one of the most pressing global challenges: how cities c

Distinguished Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow Xuemei Bai will be presenting as a key note speaker at the 12th International Conference...

Event notification for Distinguished Lecture on Sustainable Development by Xuemei Bai at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (June 27)

China has undergone 45-years of rapid urbanization, lifting its urbanization ration from under 20% to 67%, turning approx. 700 million of...

We invite applications for three PhD positions to join the dynamic and collaborative team of researchers for the  Australian Research...