Associate Professor Vladimir Strezov
Department  of Environment & Geography

How long have you been a researcher at Macquarie?
I joined Macquarie in 2003 to take a position with the Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development at the Graduate School of the Environment, now Department of Environment and Geography. I was attracted to Macquarie because, as a young career researcher back then, it was an opportunity for me to join an established research centre in the field of energy and environment, led by Prof Peter Nelson, and progress my academic career in the multidisciplinary area of environmental studies.

I was drawn to research because…
It offers the opportunity to discover new and unexplored areas of science that have impact to the development of wider knowledge. The outcomes and impacts of the research give personal satisfaction of the individual and unique contribution to the society.

Give us an ‘elevator pitch’ of your research area…
I work in the research areas of sustainable energy and industrial ecology. My main research questions are how to produce biofuels in a sustainable way, improve environmental performance of industrial activities, minimise emissions and waste, improve energy efficiency, and integrate renewable energies in the industrial operations. I am also trying to develop new measurement methods to determine sustainable development of the industrial activities.

In layman’s terms, what is the wider impact of your research?
The wider impact of my research is in the application of thermal science to industrial ecology. I had the major role in invention of a new technique to measure energy that is needed for thermal processing of materials. These measurements have been used in the basic science, by giving us better understanding and interpretation of the nature of the materials, but also in the applied science, by assisting the industries to achieve better energy efficiencies when materials are thermally processed. My results have been directly used in several industrial designs of kilns and heaters to process biomass materials and ores.

If I were given $1 million in research funding, the first thing I would do is…
Establish a research centre that deals with sustainable energy. Most of the environmental problems of our time are associated with the ways we use fuels to produce electricity and run vehicles. We are in an urgent need of reliable and affordable renewable energies, such as solar, wind and biomass integrated with energy storage systems. $1 million would be sufficient to establish a centre that would research the efficiency, affordability and better reliance of the renewable energy technologies and contribute to reducing carbon emissions.

Find out more about Vladimir’s work.