Associate Professor Dr Atiq Zaman is a researcher and academic specialising in zero waste, circular economy and sustainability at the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP), School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University, Western Australia.

He is also the Founding Co-Director of the Global South Nexus (GSN), a collaborative platform that promotes knowledge exchange, capacity building, dialogue, innovation and technology transfer between the Global North and Global South.

Dr Zaman has published around 80 peer-reviewed and scholarly outputs, including authored and edited books, journal articles, industry reports, technical reports and policy publications. He is a pioneer in zero waste research, with contributions spanning conceptual frameworks, taxonomies, principles and theories through to performance assessment tools, indicators and implementation strategies. He is currently ranked the world’s #1 zero-waste expert by ScholarGPS and has been included among the world’s top 2% of scientists in the Stanford/Elsevier global citation database.

Dr Zaman holds several academic and professional leadership roles. He has served as the Circular Economy Research Theme Leader for the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) since 2023 and contributes to circular economy research through the Curtin Institute for Energy Transition. From 2022 to 2025, he served as the Curtin Node Manager for the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP) on Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub.

He is also a member of the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), an independent advisory council supporting the United Nations Secretary-General on engineering and technology pathways for the energy transition.

Dr Zaman obtained his PhD in Sustainable Waste Management from the University of South Australia (currently Adelaide University) in 2015. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Bangladesh, and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure from KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. In 2009, he completed an internship at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Before entering academia, Dr Zaman worked as an environmental engineer, including designing effluent treatment systems for the textile industry. He subsequently worked with H&M in Bangladesh on environmental compliance, auditing, and corporate social responsibility, gaining valuable industry experience in sustainability, supply chains, and environmental management.

As a passionate advocate for sustainability and circular transformation, Dr Zaman has been invited as a keynote speaker, panellist and moderator at major international conferences and policy forums, including the Global Zero Waste Forum, World Circular Economy Forum, United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP27–COP31) and the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC-5.2).

Notable Awards, Scholarships and Recognitions:

• 2026: Best Presenter Award-First, at the World Renewable Energy Congress 2026 at Murdoch University for the topic “The missing pieces of the puzzle: Industrial decarbonisation opportunities in the Global North and South”, Perth, WA.
• 2025: Finalist of the Global Curtin Recognition Awards for (i) industry engagement and (ii) Leadership, Curtin University, Australia.
• 2025: WA Young Tall Poppy Science Award, Australia
• 2025: Humanities Initiating and Sustaining Research Award, Curtin University, Australia. 
• 2024: Faculty of Business and Law Global Positioning Award, Curtin University, Australia.
• 2024: Humanities PVC Award for Industry Partnership and Engagement, Curtin University, Australia.
• 2024: Humanities Initiating and Sustaining Research Award, Curtin University, Australia. 
• 2024: Finalist of the Curtin Awards for Research Excellence (Partnership), Curtin University, Australia.
• 2023: Pardee Symposium Travel Scholarship, The Geological Society of America, USA.
• 2018: The AUBEA 2018 Best Paper Award in Sustainability, AUBEA Singapore.
• 2011: The University President Scholarship (UPS), the University of South Australia, Australia.
• 2010: Bo Rydin Travel Scholarship, Bo Rydin, Stockholm, Sweden.