
PhD (Queensland University of Technology), MA (Queensland University of Technology), BCompSc(Hons), BMultimedia (Griffith University), JP(Qual.) Qld
Marcus Foth is Professor of Urban Informatics in the QUT Design Lab and a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Marcus’ research brings together people, place, and technology. His current research foci include:
- urban media and geoprivacy;
- data care in smart cities;
- digital inclusion and participation;
- blockchain and food supply chains, and;
- sustainability and more-than-human futures.
For two decades, Marcus has led ubiquitous computing and interaction design research into interactive digital media, screen, mobile and smart city applications. Since founding the Urban Informatics Research Lab at QUT in 2006, urban informatics has been adopted worldwide by industry (e.g., McKinsey, Intel, CISCO) and universities (e.g., NYU, University College London, Warwick, Northeastern). His leadership in establishing the field was recognised in 2017 by the Australian Computer Society inducting Marcus as a Fellow for ‘a sustained and distinguished contribution to the field of computer science’ and by the Australian and New Zealand Governments, which included urban informatics as a new field of research in their 2020 Standard Research Classification.
Marcus has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. His h-index is 51 with 8,000+ citations (Google Scholar).
In 2021, Marcus was appointed to serve a three year term on the national College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (ARC). He was also named a 2021 Distinguished Member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing.
The outputs of Marcus’ research have received many awards. For example, the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer Toolkit received the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research of the Planning Institute of Australia for significantly accelerating the calculation of value uplift in linear infrastructure projects such as rail networks. His BeefLedger project was recognised as a 2020 Good Design Australia Award winner twice: in the commercial services category and for design strategy, for demonstrating tangible benefits and impact of blockchain and smart contract applications for industry. Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, Marcus was awarded ICT Researcher of the Year 2017 (Gold Disruptor) by the Australian Computer Society.
Marcus has made substantial contributions to academic service, including being conference chair of OZCHI 2009, Communities & Technologies 2011, and ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems 2016. He is an active reviewer, associate chair, and editorial board member for various conferences and journals. In recognition of his service, he received the 2018 Publons Peer Review Award (cross-field), which honours the top 1% of reviewers.
Marcus is an ACM Distinguished Speaker and has been giving invited keynote talks and presentations at international conferences and leading research institutions, including Aalto, Aarhus, Harvard, IT University of Copenhagen, KAIST, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, MIT, Oulu, Oxford, Politecnico di Milano, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tongji, Tsinghua.
Projects
- A study into digital inclusion and human factors of agtech adoption on Queensland farms
- New Approaches to Blockchain Technology, Blockchain Governance and Digital Communities for Smart Trade Hubs for Agricultural Industries
Additional information
Member of Editorial and Advisory Boards
- Adaptive Environments (Springer book series)
- AI & Society – Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication (Springer)
- Big Data & Society (Sage)
- Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (Elsevier)
Conference Chair
- Conference chair: ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’16), Brisbane
- Conference chair: 5th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, C&T 2011, Brisbane
- Conference chair: OZCHI 2009, Melbourne: 21st Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFESA)
- Academic program chair: Making Links conferences, 2007 – 2010
- Co-chair: Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme 2009, Brisbane
- Invited faculty member: Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, Boston, 2007
Committee Positions
- ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) – steering committee member 2016 onwards
- Open UBI Oulu, University of Oulu, Finland – scientific advisory board member 2013 onwards
- UrbanIxD, Europe – scientific advisory board member 2013 – 2014
- Queensland Open Data Forum – steering committee member 2013
- Queensland Government Precinct Redevelopment – community reference group member 2013
- Elected Member of the executive board: Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), 2007 – 2009
Jury and Assessment Duties
- Australian Computer Society (ACS) Queensland ICT Awards – chair of the judging panel: Green ICT (Corporate), 2009, 2010
- Australian Research Council – international reader and ERA reviewer, ARC College of Experts member (2021 – 2023)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK – grant ssessor
- European Science Foundation (ESF) – grant assessor
- Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Ministry of Education and Science, Portugal – grant assessor
- iAwards Australia – judge 2011, 2012, 2013
- K. U. Leuven (Research Council), Belgium – grant assessor
- Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI), New Zealand – grant assessor
- NWO Council for the Social Sciences, The Netherlands – grant assessor
- OZCHI 24h Student Design Challenge – judge 2009, 2011, 2012
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) – grant assessor
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – grant assessor
- United Arab Emirates University, College of IT Promotion Committee – external reviewer
- University of Lugano (Research Commission), Switzerland – grant assessor
- VicHealth – grant assessor
- Vienna Business Agency, Austria – jury member of Wiennovation – Creative Industries Vienna 2002
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- The Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) Toolkit co-designed by UNSW, QUT Design Lab, Omnilink and FrontierSI received the 2020 NSW award and also the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research and Teaching by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) in recognition of an outstanding achievement in planning research. It is awarded for a substantial piece of research that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of issues relating to planning in Australia. The award seeks to recognise work that extends planning debate with an evidence basis.
- Type
- Membership of a Statutory Committee
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- I currently serve a three year term (2021 - 2023) on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts. To support the advancement of knowledge and contribute to national innovation, the ARC engages an ARC College of Experts to play a key role in identifying research excellence. Its members are experts of international standing drawn from the Australian research community: from higher education, industry and public sector research organisations.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Australia's annual Good Design Awards program is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958. It is recognised by the World Design Organization (WDO) as Australia¿s peak international design endorsement program. In 2020, the QUT BeefLedger project was recognised as a Good Design Australia Award Winner in the commercial services category, and the BeefLegends community engagement component won a Good Design Australia Award in the design strategy category.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- The Publons Peer Review Awards honour the top 1% of reviewers in each field who performed the most verified pre-publication peer reviews on Publons during the 2017 / 2018 award year.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, I was shortlisted and won the Gold Disruptor Award in the ICT Researcher of the Year category of the ACS Digital Disruptors Awards 2017. The awards honour the efforts of Australia¿s ICT professionals, recognising the teams and individuals at the forefront of digital disruption.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Inducted as ACM Distinguished Speaker: The Distinguished Speakers Program is an outreach program of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that brings distinguished speakers from academia, industry, and government together to give presentations to ACM chapters, members, and the greater IT community in a variety of venues and formats.
- Type
- Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Appointed Infrastructure Innovation Task Force Member. The State Infrastructure Plan (SIP) is an infrastructure strategy and program that underpins economic growth, supports jobs and creates long-term prosperity for all Queenslanders. The Infrastructure Innovation Taskforce relates to the SIP implementation action 14: to establish a joint industry-government infrastructure innovation taskforce.
- Type
- Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- The Australian Computer Society (ACS) made me a Fellow for "a sustained and distinguished contribution to the field of computer science. Foth is the international thought leader who coined the term urban informatics - now adopted by universities and industry worldwide. Foth's work makes clear how academic research can successfully respond to societal challenges."
- Type
- Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Conference Chair of the ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference 2016 in Brisbane
- Type
- Visiting Professorships/Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark
- Foth M, (2009) Handbook of Research on Urban Informatics: The Practice and Promise of the Real-time City, Information Science Reference.
- Foth M, Forlano L, Satchell C, Gibbs M, (2011) From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen: Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement, The MIT Press.
- Foth M, Brynskov M, Ojala T, (2015) Citizen's right to the digital city: Urban interfaces, activism, and placemaking, Springer.
- Foth M, Brynskov M, (2016) Participatory action research for civic engagement. In E Gordon & P Mihailidis, Civic media: Technology, design, practice, The MIT Press, pp. 563-580.
- Foth M, Bajracharya B, Brown R, Hearn G, (2009) The Second Life of urban planning? Using neogeography tools for community engagement, Journal of Location Based Services, 3 (2), pp. 97-117.
- Foth M, (2018) Participatory urban informatics: Towards citizen-ability, Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 7 (1), pp. 4-19.
- Clarke R, Heitlinger S, Light A, Forlano L, Foth M, DiSalvo C, (2019) More-than-human participation: design for sustainable smart city futures, Interactions, 26 (3), pp. 60-63.
- Loh S, Foth M, Caldwell G, Garcia-Hansen V, Thomson M, (2020) A more-than-human perspective on understanding the performance of the built environment, Architectural Science Review, 63 (3-4), pp. 372-383.
- Foth M, Choi J, Satchell C, (2011) Urban informatics, Proceedings of the ACM 2011 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, pp. 1-8.
- Foth M, Caldwell G, (2018) More-than-human media architecture, Proceedings of the 4th Media Architecture Biennale Conference, pp. 66-75.
- Title
- Advancing Digital Inclusion in Low Income Australian Families
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP190100677
- Start year
- 2021
- Keywords
- Title
- Digital Media, Location Awareness, and the Politics of Geodata
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP180100174
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- Fostering digital participation through Living Labs in regional and rural Australian communities
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP130100469
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- digital citizenship; rural & regional; digital literacy
- Title
- Eat, Cook, Grow: Ubiquitous Technology for Sustainable Food Culture in the City
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP100100232
- Start year
- 2010
- Keywords
- Human Computer Interaction; Urban Informatics; Ubiquitous Computing; Mobile Social Interaction
- Title
- Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future: Embedding Narrative and New Media in Urban Planning
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP0882274
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Community Engagement; Community Informatics; New Media; Urban Planning
- Title
- Swarms in Urban Villages: New Media Design to Augment Social Networks of Residents in Inner-City Developments
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP0776341
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Social Networking Systems; New Media; Human Computer Interaction; Community Informatics; Interaction Design; Urban Neighbourhoods
- Radical Placemaking: Designing an Experimental Placemaking Toolkit for Social Justice
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Glenda Caldwell - Overcoming barriers in institutional decision-making processes for circular economies and regenerative cities
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Greg Hearn - Enabling People-Plant Engagement in Office Buildings Through Technologically Mediated Environments
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Yasu Santo - Smart Urban Governance for More-than-Human Future(s)
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Peta Mitchell - Translating Common Knowledge Theory into Practice: Decentralised Finance forTrust-less Food Supply Chains using Blockchain
MPhil, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Xavier Boyen - Development of a Data Agnostic Participatory Visualisation Framework for applications in Smart Cities
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Markus Rittenbruch, Professor Peta Mitchell - A new perspective of the design of pedestrian bridges, Inspired by Baudelaire's Flâneur
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Mirko Guaralda, Associate Professor Markus Rittenbruch
- Alternative Forms of Citymaking: Insights and Implications from South Africa and Australia (2021)
- Planning and City Policy Responses to Remote Work in Urban Environments (2021)
- The Rise of Casual Creative Environments: Towards a Socially Embedded View of Innovation Precursors and Processes (2021)
- Humanising the Smart City: Co-Creation Redefined in Pursuit of Systemic Change (2020)
- The Right to the Digital City: The Role of Urban Imaginaries in Participatory Citymaking (2019)
- Connecting to Self, Community, and the Environment: Energy Conservation and Well-being in Households with Low Income (2018)
- Risky Gadgets to the Rescue - Reframing In-Car Technology Use as Task Engagement (2018)
- The Mundane Lives of Households: A Design Exploration into Everyday Resource Sufficiency in the Home (2018)
- Participatory Data Analytics: Designing Visualisation and Composition Interfaces for Collaborative Sensemaking on Large Interactive Screens (2017)