PEPSS Seminar September 2026
Description
Join us for our September PEPSS Seminar, an interdisciplinary panel discussion on “Building climate resilience: Behavioural and policy perspectives”.
We are pleased to announce our panellists:
Professor Ben Newell, Professor in Psychology at UNSW Sydney and Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response; and
Dr Liz Young, Research Director of the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub at The University of Queensland.
Date & Time: Friday 25 September, 1-2:30pm AEST (UTC +10)
Location: Room 306, McElwain Building (Building 24A), UQ St Lucia
Alternatively, here are the details if you will be attending via Zoom.
Zoom link: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/81587978312?pwd=roH8SuLgMK2UDnAwg4VRqTecRnJ3sb.1
(Meeting ID: 815 8797 8312 | Password: 488897)
Lineup
Professor Winnifred Louis (Seminar Chair)
Winnifred R. Louis (PhD McGill, 2001) is a professor in Psychology at The University of Queensland. She has published over 200 scholarly publications, and her research examines how identity and norms influence social decision-making. She has studied this broad topic in contexts from political violence to health to environmental choices.
Professor Ben Newell
Ben Newell is Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response and a Professor in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney. His research focuses on the cognitive processes underlying judgment, choice and decision-making. His role in the Institute is to drive an interdisciplinary research agenda bringing together expertise from behavioural science, climate science, economics, governance and law to address the risks and opportunities of climate change. He has published multiple articles at the intersection of psychology and climate change, with particular focus on the understanding of uncertainty and risk. Ben is lead author of the books Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making, and Open Minded. Ben is a member of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) and was part of the Chief Medical Officer’s advisory group for the National Health and Climate Strategy. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. More Information about Ben: https://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/users/bnewell/ More Information about the Institute for Climate Risk & Response: https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/icrr
Dr Liz Young
Liz Young holds a PhD in Political Science and an Executive Master of Public Administration (ANZSOG). She is an applied researcher focused on climate transitions, sectoral decarbonisation, and policy innovation, and is currently Research Director of the Queensland Decarbonisation Hub. A former Australian Parliamentary Fellow, Liz has more than 20 years' experience in the Queensland Government, including over a decade in senior leadership roles shaping environmental and climate policy. She brings deep expertise in the ways public policy, institutional settings, and stakeholder dynamics influence environmental outcomes, and is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice through co-production, public sector capability building, and institutional change. Before transitioning to academia, Liz played a central role in major state-wide initiatives such as the Clean Economy Jobs Bill, which legislated Queensland’s 2035 and 2050 emissions reduction targets; the introduction of bioregional planning as part of national environmental reforms; and the development of Queensland’s Protected Area Strategy. Her leadership has spanned a broad policy portfolio including climate adaptation, environmental planning, protected areas, First Nations economic transition, and sustainability planning for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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