Building Sustainable Futures

Dr. Mohammad Dastbaz is Dean of Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology and Professor of Informatics at Leeds Beckett University. Professor Dastbaz's research work over recent years has been focused on the use and impact of emerging technologies in society, particularly learning, training and the development of 'eGovernment.' Dr. Dastbaz has led EU and UK based funded research projects and has been the Symposium Chair of Multimedia Systems in IEEE's Information Visualisation (IV) conference since 2002. He has over 50 refereed publications, including numerous journal paper articles, conference papers, book chapters and books on e-learning, eGovernment and the design and development of Multimedia Systems. Professor Dastbaz is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and UK's Higher Education Academy as well as the professional member of ACM and IEEE's computer society.

Dr. Ian Strange is Professor of Spatial Policy and Head of Centre for Urban Development and Environmental Management (CUDEM). His research experience and expertise lies within the areas of urban governance and art, cultural and heritage policy. Professor Strange's research work includes contracts for the ESRC, European Commission, UK Government departments, cultural and arts organizations and various local and regional authorities. His participation in EPSRC/ESRC research cluster on values in the historic environment, and his extensive work on European spatial development policy through the European Spatial Planning and Observation Network (ESPON) projects.