2012 Civil Engineering Alumnus of the Year: Prof. Tony Wong
Professor Tony Wong internationally recognised for his research and practice in sustainable urban water management and has led a large number of award-winning urban design projects in Australia and overseas.
Professor Wong gained his BE (1981) and PhD (1984) from the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University. Tony has over 30 years of experience in the field of water resources management in both the rural and urban environments. With a dedicated focus on ecological sustainability he has led new thinking and practice in integrated urban water cycle management and water sensitive urban design. His expertise has been gained through national and international consulting, research, and academia. Professor Wong has over 150 publications, notably Australian Runoff Quality: A Guide to Water Sensitive Urban Design, and presented over 50 keynote and invited lectures. In October 2010, he was presented the Sir John Holland Award as Australia’s 2010 Civil Engineer of the Year by the Institution of Engineers, Australia.
Professor Wong joined the consulting firm GHD upon completion of his PhD and worked in their Hydrology and Hydraulics group until 1991, when he returned to the Caulfield Division of the Monash Department of Civil Engineering. He headed this Division in 1995. Tony moved to the Clayton Campus in 1998, gaining his Associate Professorship the same year. In 2001, Tony co-founded the consulting practice Ecological Engineering, and in 2007 the company was acquired by the global design firm EDAW (now AECOM), where Tony was Principal and Director of AECOM Design + Planning. In February 2010, Tony co-founded Monash University’s Centre for Water Sensitive Cities and later that year left AECOM to undertake private consulting while also devoting more time to his role as Chief Executive and Director of the Centre. He also took on an additional role as strategic advisor to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Monash University.
Throughout the last fifteen years Professor Wong has provided strategic advice to governments and industry nationally and internationally, and has led the development of government and corporate policies on Water Sensitive Urban Design. He is a member of the Urban Water Advisory Panel of the National Water Commission of Australia since its inception, and served on the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council’s working group on Water for Cities in 2006 and 2007. Tony also developed the Water Sensitive Urban Design implementation framework for Singapore and various cities in China.
In research, Professor Wong is currently the Director of the Cities as Water Supply Catchments research program. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of the Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration, and before that, the Program Leader of the highly successful research program Urban Stormwater Quality in the Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology. In 2012, Tony led the establishment of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities and is now the Chief Executive Officer of this research centre.
Professor Wong was a member and past Chairman of the Institution of Engineers Australia’s Victorian Water Engineering Committee (1986 to 1996) and National Committee on Water Engineering (1989 to 2002). He was the Australian Representative in the Joint International Association of Hydraulic Research (IAHR)/International Water Association (IWA) Committee on Urban Drainage (2003 to 2005), and founding chairman of that committee’s International Working Group on Water Sensitive Urban Design.