Professor Nataliia Kuznietsova. Image: Luisa Low, University of Sydney
Complex systems expert Professor Nataliia Kuznietsova was scrolling the internet late one night from her home in Kyiv when she came across the Australian Academy of Science’s Ukraine-Australia Research Fund – a program that provides a temporary haven for Ukrainian researchers impacted by the war with Russia, supporting them to continue their research in a secure and welcoming environment.
She Googled complex systems researchers in Australia and Professor Mikhail Prokopenko, Director of the University's Centre for Complex Systems came up. “I emailed him straight away and he replied promptly,” said Professor Kuznietsova, who researches at the National Technical University of Ukraine – Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. “We quickly realised our research had a lot in common, and the rest, as they say, is history. We prepared an application, it was accepted, and Mikhail became my host researcher.”
Professor Kuznietsova is now working with Professor Prokopenko’s team to develop ways to encourage policymakers and businesses to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and rebuild houses and infrastructure using green materials.
“So much of Ukraine has been damaged,” said Professor Kuznietsova. “When the war ends, we need to rebuild. We shouldn’t do it with the industries and methods of old – it will be an opportunity to create the world’s first wholly green society.”
