Mariano Jr Reyes Ramirez

Associate Professor Mariano Jr Reyes Ramirez serves as Senior Lecturer and Discipline Director of Industrial Design at the University of New South Wales School of Built Environment. With over 70 publications on design for sustainability and presentations at more than 30 international conferences, he has established himself as a thought leader in sustainable industrial design. Dr. Ramirez has contributed as a Visiting Academic to 24 universities across 10 countries including China, India, Korea, Mexico, and Brazil, and serves as a PhD Examiner in 5 Australian universities as well as in Sweden and Italy.

His research concentrates on the environmental sustainability and social responsibility aspects of industrial design, with particular focus on promoting circular economy through waste minimisation and resource optimisation, enabling responsible consumption behaviours through product design, and leveraging industrial design innovation to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. His work spans sustainable product development, product-service systems, design for a circular economy, and disaster risk reduction.

Dr. Ramirez has secured significant research funding including Transport for NSW's $120,000 grant for enhancing public space safety, NSW Circular Challenge Program's $200,000 grant for hospital polypropylene waste recycling, and multiple international collaboration grants. His 15 most recent publications reveal a consistent focus on human-centered sustainable design approaches applied across diverse contexts from prison rehabilitation programs to water solutions in Jakarta slums and cultural heritage integration in electric vehicle design.

• Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence 2007 for paper 'Sustainability in the education of industrial designers: the case for Australia'
• UNSW Built Environment Learning & Teaching Excellence Award, 2017
• UNSW Built Environment Dean's Research Excellence Award, 2012
• Multiple UNSW Built Environment Associate Dean Teaching Commendations (2007-2011)

Dr. Ramirez actively supervises BID honours, MPhil and PhD students at UNSW while examining dissertations from multiple Australian and international universities. He serves on editorial boards for Sustainability (MDPI) and scientific review committees for several leading design and sustainability journals. His research supervision focuses on dematerialization of contemporary lifestyles, fostering sustainable behaviors through design, optimization of product lifetimes, sustainability integration in design education, and industrial design as a tool for achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As Regional Convenor for Oceania of the Learning Network on Sustainability since 2006 and Project Leader of the South-to-South initiative activating Australian-Latin American Cooperation through Design for Sustainability Education, Dr. Ramirez demonstrates significant leadership in building international research networks focused on sustainable design education and practice.