Environmental director for UNSW

The University of NSW has appointed Graciela Metternicht as director of the Institute of Environmental Studies. Metternicht joins the university from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in Central and South America as regional co-ordinator of early warning and assessment. Prior to this post, she was professor of geospatial systems and environmental management at the school of natural and built environments at the University of South Australia. She has also been professor of spatial sciences at the Western Australia School of Mines at Curtin University of Technology. Metternicht has made significant contributions to global and regional environmental reports of the UNEP and the UN, such as the 5th Global Environment Outlook; major reports on resource efficiency; sustainable, resource efficient cities; regional advances on environmental sustainability, indicators of sustainable development; and on climate change. She has published more than 100 scientific papers in international journals, and has attracted research funding through Australian competitive grants (ARC and others), international grants and research contracts. Metternicht has a PhD in geography from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and a master of science from the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, The Netherlands.