Professor Thomas KVAN is the founding Dean of the School of Design and Chair Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology. He is a Fellow of Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and of the Royal Society of the Arts, the former two were elected in 2005 and the latter in 2021. Previously, he has held positions as Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Campus and Global Development and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney, and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. During his time at the University of Melbourne, he established the Melbourne School of Design and founded several multidisciplinary large research initiatives. He holds or has held honorary and advisory appointments at the University of Melbourne, TU Eindhoven, Wuhan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and University of New South Wales.

Professor Kvan is recognized internationally for his pioneering work in design, design learning, digital environments, design management, and virtual heritage. He was the founding co-Director of LEaRN (the Learning Environments Applied Research Network) delivering multidisciplinary research on learning and architecture and was founding Director of AURIN (the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network) that developed a national digital infrastructure of urban data to support research and decision making, both networks hosted at the University of Melbourne. He has published over 200 publications in academic, professional, and popular channels and is on the editorial boards of leading journals. Professor Kvan received his Ph.D. in architecture from Open University, MArch in Computer Applications in Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles, MA, and BA from Cambridge University.