Keith Crews
- Research Hub Director; Executive Board Member
- The University of Queensland
- k.crews@uq.edu.au
Current positions held
Professor – School of Civil Engineering – The University of Queensland
Director – ARC Research Hub to Advance Timber for Australia’s Future Built Environment (ARC Advance Timber Hub)
Director – Centre for Future Timber Structures
Chairperson – World Conference on Timber Engineering 2025 (WCTE 2025)
Emeritus Professor of Structural Engineering – University of Technology Sydney
Editor – Construction & Building Materials
About
Keith Crews is currently Professor & Director of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Research Hub to Advance Timber in Australia’s Built Environment, hosted at the University of Queensland. He specialises in the research and design of large scale timber structures and is internationally recognised as an expert in the area of Sustainable Infrastructure – particularly in regard to bridge safety, structural assessment and timber engineering for non residential buildings and physical infrastructure. Keith has extensive experience initiating and managing large scale, multi-disciplinary research projects undertaken for Government and industry.
Keith is Director of the UQ Centre for Future Timber Structures, formerly on the ARC Future Timber Hub Board; and previously lead of University of Technology Sydney (UTS) External Engagement that managed multidisciplinary research teams addressing complex industry problems. Keith is currently CI on an ARC Linkage Project for an engineering-architecture collaboration on circular building design.
Keith’s proven experience at initiating and managing large scale, multi-disciplinary research projects for government and industry, including the $9.8m Structural Timber Innovation Company consortium that progressed timber engineering into Australian design guidelines and enabled the first construction of timber mid-rise buildings.
Keith’s internationally recognised expertise in timber engineering solutions has been instrumental in the development of National and ISO Standards for testing and design of structural timber products, with a strong national profile from engaging industry and policy makers on the benefits of innovative timber solutions.
Keith has published extensively, having authored over 350 papers and technical reports relating to the use, assessment, safety and reliability of bridge and timber structures and buildings – including co-authoring the Australian Timber Design Handbook. He is an Editor for the Construction and Building Materials Journal and has received numerous awards for his research, including being a recipient the RW Chapman Medal in 2004 and the IEAust Structural College Eminent Speaker award for 2009.
Keith will be responsible for delivery on the Hub aims and objectives, supported by the Hub Manager (Kelly Rischmiller) and Deputy Director (Ass Prof Paul Dargusch).
His role will be to mentor, support and develop emerging leaders amongst the Hub’s early and mid-career researchers and lead the management of exemplar building partnerships.
More information
https://civil.uq.edu.au/profile/917/keith-crews
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