Meead is an academic and urban scientist at the UNSW Research Centre for Integrated Transport Innovation (rCITI) with a civil engineering background. He leads the CityX research laboratory that is focused on improving scientific understanding of cities through development and application of smart technologies and open data to better plan, manage and operate urban transport systems. Born and raised in Iran, he has studied, worked and lived in Portland, Chicago, Houston and Melbourne before moving to Sydney in 2018.
Meead has more than 14 years of experience in tackling challenging urban transport problems and providing innovative solutions and policies in close collaboration with many city councils and state governments. He has worked with City of Sydney, City of Melbourne, City of Randwick and City of Willoughby, Transport for Victoria and Transport for NSW on a range of problems including parking management, improving walkability, cycling safety, traffic noise and urban greenery. His research on cycling and urban logistics is supported and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) that is one of the Australian government's two main agencies for competitively allocating funding to academics and researchers at Australian universities.
Meead is married with a 3-year-old son and is a resident of Waterloo area. He has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, a Master’s in Transportation Engineering and a PhD in Transport Systems Analysis and Planning from Northwestern University, Chicago. He’s the co-founder of a Sydney-based start-up company (“footpath.ai”) and is hoping to bridge the gap between academia and policy-making by promoting evidence-based policy and data-driven decision making.
