Our people
Our Climate Change Adaptation Lab team, affiliate members, organisational partners, and national and internal university partnerships, work collaboratively to co-produce research.
Climate Change Adaptation Lab team
| Name | Title | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Professor Lauren Rickards | Professor of Climate Change Adaptation | l.rickards@latrobe.edu.au |
| Dr Lisa de Kleyn | Research Fellow Climate Change Adaptation | l.deKleyn@latrobe.edu.au |
| A/Prof Magnus Moglia | Assoc Prof, Climate Change Adapt Lab | m.moglia@latrobe.edu.au |
| Dr Sophie Adams | ARC DECRA Fellow | s.adams@latrobe.edu.au |
| Belinda Lawrence | Lab Manager | b.lawrence@latrobe.edu.au |
Affiliates
PhD Students
| Name | Project Title | Project Description | Supervisors | Highlights of 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merry Jean Caparas | The Work in Critical Electricity Infrastructure Security and Resilience | Climate’s inhuman forces continuously strain the critical electricity infrastructure, triggering emergencies, and exposing limits of standardised operational work. Adaptive work, such as improvisation, becomes essential to prevent collapse. My PhD investigates how electricity management (re)standardisation has emerged, been challenged, and is evolving under climate change in Australia and the UK. | Prof Lauren Rickards, La Trobe University Dr Sophie Adams, La Trobe University Prof William Eadson, Sheffield Hallam University Dr Ella Hubbard, Sheffield Hallam University | Participated in 2025 HORIZON Doctoral Training (coordinated by the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, and Melbourne Centre for Cities). June 2025- October 2025 Presented ‘The Dance of More-Than-Human Agency’ at the Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, 26-29 August 2025, University of Birmingham Published Caparas, M., & Tabada, M. (2025). Fields of Uncertainty: Climate, extraction, and the struggles of rice farmers in the Philippines. Anti-Trafficking Review, (25), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.14197/atr.2012252511 |
| Ashley Fletcher | Navigating climate change adaptation in local government: practitioner insights form rural and regional Australia | This PhD will explore how local governments are trying to embed strategic climate change adaptation through tracking the experiences of local government officers in the context of increasing climate impacts, increasing responsibility and constraining resources over time. The research will take a practitioner led and informed approach and track the experience of practitioners over time. | Prof Lauren Rickards, La Trobe University Dr Lisa de Kleyn, La Trobe University | Awarded Victorian Drought Hub Scholarship Awarded competitive Natural Hazards Research Australia Postgraduate Research Scholarship |
| Tenzin Fox | Student-Centred Adaptation: Climate change responses for contemporary Australian university students | This project examines the current state of climate vulnerability amongst La Trobe University students, alongside perspectives of university staff on the state of university adaptation. It explores the potential of Students as Partners practice in bridging the gaps found in the current adaptation approaches of the Victorian university sector. | Prof. Lauren Rickards, La Trobe university A/Prof. Magnus Moglia, La Trobe University Dr Lisa De Kleyn, La Trobe University | Completed 90% of data collection with student research participants |
| Oliver Frick | The impact of climate on the everyday life and work of Filipino nurses in Australia and Germany | My research explores how Filipino migrant nurses in Victoria and Germany experience the local climate and weather in the place that they now live and work. It further aims to get an understanding of how this affects their everyday life and work also how they adjust their daily habits in response to it. | Dr Makiko Nishitani La Trobe University Dr Lisa de Kleyn, La Trobe University | Participated in the organising committee and chaired two sessions of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences 2025 HDR conference, La Trobe University Obtained research ethics approval and commenced fieldwork |
| Tmnit Halefom | The Sustainability Implications of Working from Home: Insights from Housing and Travel Behaviour | My thesis examines how working from home (WFH) affects housing and travel. WFH reduces peak-hour commuting but leads workers to live farther from work in larger homes, increasing car dependence and offsetting benefits. The study provides insights for planning and policy to promote more sustainable WFH practices. | Dr. Stephen Glackin, Swinburne University of Technology A/Prof Magnus Moglia, La Trobe University, Prof Christian (Andi) Nygaard, University of New South Wales | Presented at the AHURI Postgraduate Symposium, Sydney February 2025 Presented at the Australian Housing Researchers Conference, February 2025 Completed first draft of PhD thesis |
| Sam Hall | Occupational Health Perspectives of Climate Change Impacts at work | This PhD project investigates how Australia's multidisciplinary Occupational Health Practitioners understand and respond to climate change impacts at work. It explores current perceptions, practice readiness, and emerging challenges to support safer work and inform future policy, education, and professional standards. | Prof Lauren Rickards, La Trobe University Dr Lisa de Kleyn La Trobe University A/Prof Rwth Stuckey, La Trobe University | Participated and awarded 2nd place in HUSS in 3 Minute Thesis competition Presented 'Occupational Health Practitioner Perceptions of Climate Change Impacts at Work', School of Humanities and Social Sciences 2025 HDR conference, La Trobe University |
| Lachlan Hensey | Will the revolution be decentralised? Exploring stakeholder conceptions of risk, resilience and decentralisation in Australia’s energy transition | This project explores what logics underpin energy transition planning and activities in Australia, with a focus on stakeholder conceptions of risk, resilience and decentralisation. The research comprises several ethnographic case studies of organisations and communities at the intersection of decarbonisation and climate adaptation initiatives in Victoria. | A/Prof. Timothy Neale, Deakin University A/Prof. Victoria Stead, Deakin University Dr Sophie Adams, La Trobe University | Attended the National Hazards Research Forum, Adelaide, June 2025 Attended the AusSTS conference Signals and Noises, Melbourne, July 2025 |
| Raphael Odunlade | Climate Resilient Housing System in Australia | My research investigates how the Australian housing system responds to climate-related disturbances, examining how resilience often reinforce the system's pre-existing institutional logic and explores transformative pathways for more just housing futures. | A/Prof Sorada Tapsuwan, Swinburne University of Technology Prof Christian (Andi) Nygaard, University of New South Wales A/Prof Magnus Moglia, La Trobe University Dr Olamide Shittu, Swinburne University of Technology | Awarded Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) top-up scholarship |
Academic partnerships
- University of Freiburg, Germany
- Sheffield Hallam University, UK
- RMIT University, Australia
- University of Sydney, Australia
- Southern Cross University, Australia
Dr. Simon Schaupp is postdoc in Sociology at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt (Germany). Simon’s research focuses on the transformation of the world of work, digitalization and the ecological crisis.
Prof. Mikael Granberg is Professor of Political Science and a Senior Research Fellow at The Centre for Societal Risk Research at Karlstad University (Sweden). Mikael’s research focuses on political processes, and in relation to the challenges from climate change, how institutionalised political practices and norms facilitate or hinder collective action.
Hosted academic visitors
- Prof. Hartmut Fünfgeld, University of Freiburg, Germany (2024)
- Prof. Sirkku Juhola, University of Helsinki (2024)
- Dennis Fila, University of Freiburg, Germany (2024)
- Alexandra Speidel, University of Freiburg, Germany (2024)