About the lecture:

Our cities face unprecedented challenges – from rapid population growth and environmental pollution to climate change, biodiversity loss, and declining human wellbeing.

While urban green and blue spaces offer enormous potential to address these challenges through nature-based solutions, they are increasingly under pressure from urbanisation and climate impacts.

Join Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman in a fascinating free public lecture at Macquarie University, part of the DISCOVER Lecture series for 2025.

Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman explores how we can build climate-resilient urban forests and waterways, while leveraging innovations in smart sensor technology, communications and artificial intelligence to create the nature-rich cities of tomorrow.

Learn how these solutions can help cities lead the way in climate change adaptation and mitigation, creating healthier, more sustainable urban environments for future generations.

About Professor Leishman:

Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman is an internationally renowned ecologist specialising in plant invasion biology, climate change impacts and adaptation, plant conservation and urban greening. She leads a research group in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University and is Director of Macquarie’s Smart Green Cities Research Centre. 

Her research has been widely translated into practical on-ground solutions and policy advice for government and industry, including the development of widely adopted online tools such as ‘Which Plant Where.’ With more than 190 published book chapters and journal articles, she is one of Australia's most highly cited researchers in her field.