Tony Wong is Professor of Sustainable Development at Monash Sustainable Development Institute. He was formerly Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Water Sensitive Cities (2012-2020), a $120 million Australian Government initiative established in July 2012. Prior to his CRC appointment, Tony was a founding co-director of Monash University’s Centre for Water Sensitive Cities and served as Chief Executive from its establishment until July 2012. In 2017, he also assumed the position of Executive Chairman of the Water Sensitive Cities Institute, a subsidiary company of the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.

A Civil Engineer with a PhD in Water Resources Engineering and over 30 years professional experience, Professor Wong is internationally recognised for his research and practice in sustainable urban water management, particularly water sensitive urban design. His expertise has been gained through national and international consulting, research, and academia. He has led a large number of award-winning urban design projects in Australia and overseas and has been commended for having defined "a new paradigm for design of urban environments that blends creativity with technical and scientific rigour”.

Professor Wong provides strategic advice on sustainable urban water management to the land development industry and to state and local governments, and has led the development of numerous state and corporate policies on water sensitive urban design. He has been a member of the Urban Water Advisory Panel of the National Water Commission of Australia since its inception and served on the Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council’s working group on Water for Cities in 2006 and 2007. From 2006 to 2013, he advised the Public Utilities Board of Singapore on institutionalising water sensitive urban design in transforming Singapore into a water sensitive city. His accelerating role as advisor and thought leader is now influencing new regions, including creating a new market for water sensitive innovation in China; and in a groundbreaking project on water sensitive management for transforming the world’s urban slums.

In research, Professor Wong’s work in the field of WSUD has included gross pollutant traps, and constructed wetland technologies and bioretention systems for improving urban stormwater quality that form the basis of contemporary industry standards. He has over 200 publications, notably Australian Runoff Quality: A Guide to Water Sensitive Urban Design and a pivotal invited contribution to the prestigious journal, Nature and has presented over 80 keynote and invited lectures.