Team

FRRC brings together a multidisciplinary research team comprising expertise from within Federation University and beyond to address a variety of environmental challenges.

Centre leadership

FRRC has three centre directors as well as leadership teams for each of its research streams.

Professor Thomas Baumgartl

t.baumgartl@federation.edu.au

Professor Thomas Baumgartl is an internationally renowned environmental scientist specialising in soil physics and soil mechanics, with a degree in geo-ecology from the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Professor Baumgartl is the Director of the Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Engineering and Research Group (GHERG). The group of local and international experts works closely with the Victorian Government and mining partners to guide the safe rehabilitation of open-cut brown coal mines in the Latrobe Valley.

Thomas has many years of experience working nationally and internationally on industry and government funded projects and has worked previously at the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation at the University of Queensland. His research interests focus on mine closure and solutions for construction of stable landforms. Of specific interest are water balance parameters (such as evaporation, run-off, infiltration, vegetation, deep drainage) and understanding the evolution of constructed landforms and risks of failure. He is associate editor and editorial board member of several international journals and has organised and presented at international conferences on mine rehabilitation and land restoration.

Professor Keir Reeves

k.reeves@federation.edu.au

Professor Keir Reeves is Co-Director of the Future Regions Research Centre at Federation University Australia. Keir’s current research works at the intersection heritage, cultural tourism, regional studies and history. Prior to joining Federation University his previous teaching and research positions were at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. He has also held visiting research fellowships/professorships at King’s College London, Clare Hall Cambridge, Ghent University, Utrecht University, University of Highlands and Islands and Wakayama University.

Keir has been a past chair of the University Professoriate, and he is particularly interested in enhancing the postgraduate research experience, and also mentoring early career researchers. Keenly interested in themes of regionalism and rurality, he works closely with the FRRC Horsham Research Hub based at the Wimmera Campus and the Ararat Jobs and Technology Precinct initiative.

Keir is currently an editorial board member of the Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development and the Journal of Heritage Tourism. Keir has been a APDI or Chief Investigator on seven Australian Research Council (ARC) funded projects. He was also an ARC funded PhD student on the Mount Alexander Diggings project.

Research streams

FRRC's research team is made up of the leadership and members of its five research streams.

Contact us

For queries about FRRC’s research, or to discuss collaborating or researching with us, get in touch with the Centre Directors via the Contact page .