"I started off life working as a Geologist, and my journey started at a coal mine. I have friends who are into petroleum and mining, which are key sectors undergoing a major change," Dr Stephen Wilkinson, Director of Research & Head of the Smart and Sustainable Cities Research Cluster, University of Wollongong in Dubai, said.

Speaking at the Sustainability Middle East conference held in Dubai recently, Dr Wilkinson said that his first introduction to sustainability was producing negative carbon materials and advancing research on it.

"I worked on electro-magnetic imaging of mud to understand it in detail, with structure. So, these are my fields of expertise - Geology, and micro-imaging," he said.

Dr Wilkinson's first area of research was how we can start using biological life, in order to carry out processes for engineering - this is Applied Geo-Microbiology.