Professor Sarah Bekessy leads the ICON Science research group (www.icon-science.org) which uses interdisciplinary approaches to solve complex biodiversity conservation problems. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of human behaviour in conservation, in designing cities to encourage ‘every day nature’ experiences and in defining and measuring ‘nature positive’ development. She co-developed the Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design protocol that has now been used by numerous developers, governments and non-government organisations to design innovative urban biodiversity strategies. Sarah is a Lead Councillor with The Biodiversity Council, a Board member of Bush Heritage Australia, a member of the WWF Eminent Scientists Group and an advisor to ELM Responsible Investment, the Living Building Challenge and Wood for Good.

Professional Summary:
- Chief investigator of 3 ARC Linkage projects and 2 ARC Discovery projects and Ian Potter Foundation project ‘Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design’
- Chief Investigator of two European Commission funded projects: Urban GREENUP (Action research for urban nature-based solutions), RECETAS (Testing actions for nature based social prescribing) and UN Habitat project: Enhancing urban resilience to climate change impacts and natural disasters
- ARC Future Fellow (completed 2020) (Socio-ecological models for environmental decision making)
- Theme leader, ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (2012-2018)
- Project leader, Commonwealth Environment Science Program: Threatened Species Recovery Hub (completed 2021) and Theme leader, Commonwealth Environment Science Program: Clean Air & Urban Landscapes Hub (completed 2021)
- Urban Scholar, UN Global Compact; Advisor to the UN Cities with Nature program (with whom I co-developed a city-wide methodology
- Over 12 million dollars in research funding
- Highly cited international journal publications (H index 50), editorial board of 2 journals: Conservation Letters and Natural Resources Modelling, several guest editing positions
- Currently supervising 8 postdoctoral and 8 postgraduate researcher fellows. Engaged in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

1999 Australian Bicentennial Award for postgraduate research
2001 John S. Turner award for Botany postgraduate students
2004 & 2005 RMIT Research Prize
2005 RMIT Collaborative Research Prize
2005 Brian Robinson Fellowship for Environmental Sustainability
2006 RMIT Emerging Researcher Award
2015 RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award
2016 Banksia Award Finalist, Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Design
2020 Winner of the City of Melbourne Design Challenge
2020 Totemic species in Schools project nominated for HART Award for Indigenous Reconciliation
2022/3 RMIT Media Star Award
2023 Best eLearning Design and Best eLearning Design for Industry for ‘Bringing Urban Nature into the Cities of Tomorrow’