Phillip O'Neill

Professor Phillip O’Neill is Director of the Centre for Western Sydney at Western Sydney University. Previously he was Foundation Director of the Urban Research Centre at WSU, and Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle.

Phillip is a widely published international scholar with expertise relating to economic and industrial change especially in large cities.

He had held visiting research fellowships at Bristol University, The University of Massachusetts, the National University of Singapore, the University of Oxford and University College London. Phillip was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Geographical Research 2010-14. He sits on the editorial boards of a number of leading international journals and is a member of the advisory board of iBuild, a leading UK infrastructure research venture.

Phillip has held six prestigious Australian Research Council grants including his current grants which investigate Australia’s obstinate infrastructure problems and international infrastructure financing trends.

Phillip writes regular columns for the Fairfax regional and community press and is a prominent media commentator.

In recent times he has completed a 25 year outlook study of employment for Western Sydney, an investigation of mortgage distress in significantly affected Western Sydney neighbourhoods, a detailed audit of Sydney’s threatened agricultural lands, and a path-breaking analysis of Sydney's fresh fruit and vegetable supply chains.

Experience

Professor of Economic Geography, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University (2006-present)

Inaugural Director, Centre for Western Sydney (2014-2020)

Provost, Western Sydney University Bankstown City Campus (2018-2020)

Foundation Director, Urban Research Centre, University of Western Sydney (2006-2012)

Director Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, The University of Newcastle, NSW (2000-2006)

Research Fellow at University of Bristol (1994), University of Massachusetts (1999), National University of Singapore (2003), University of Oxford (2010), University College London (2015)

Fellow of the Institute of Australian Geographers (awarded 2008)

Editor-in-Chief, Geographical Research (2009 to 2013)

Member of Editorial Boards (various years) of Transactions of Institute of British Geographers (Wiley Blackwell); Progess in Human Geography (Arnold), Environment and Planning A (Pion); Journal of Economic Geography (OUP); Compass (Wiley Blackwell); Regional Studies, Regional Science (Taylor and Francis); Human Geography.

Member International Advisory Board, Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) University of Newcastle, UK

Member International Expert Advisory Board i-Build, U.K. (2013 to 2018)

Member International Advisory Board, Fourth Global Conference in Economic Geography, Oxford, August 19-22, 2015

Member ERA2018 Research Evaluation Committee (Education and Human Society), Australian Research Council 2019

Columnist Newcastle Herald (2003-present); Fairfax Community Newspapers (Sydney, 2016-present)

Awarded in 2015 the Macdonald Holmes Medal by the NSW Geographical Society together with the NSW Geography Teachers’ Association. This award is made biennially to a person deemed to have made a distinguished contribution in the field of geographical education in Australia.

Qualifications

• PhDGeo Macquarie University
• MA(Hons) Macquarie University
• BA(Hons) Macquarie University

Professional Memberships

• Institute of Australian Geographers (1991)

Organisational Unit (School / Division)

• Geography, Tourism & Planning

Teaching

Current Teaching Areas

• HUMN2053 The Economics of Cities and Regions

Previous Teaching Areas

• 102604 Urban Planning Placement Project, 2021