Environmental and public policy concerns have informed my published research and primary teaching responsibilities since the early 1990s.

I have two primary research interests: the social, technical, environmental and economic factors involved in the development of premodern and early modern machine technologies, and the obstacles and enablers to global action on human forcing of the climate and the decarbonisation of global energy systems. I have an international reputation as a researcher in the former field, and a growing national and international reputation in the latter.

My research in the former field is informed by theories and methodologies developed in social and economic history, post-processual archaeology and the history, philosophy and sociology of science and technology. My research in the latter field is primarily informed by theories and methodologies developed in science and technology studies, policy studies, innovation studies, critical political economy, and environmental sociology.

More recently, I have been working with a number of colleagues throughout Australia on critical research into university governance and finance. This collaborative work led to the formation of Academics for Public Universities and Public Universities Australia in 2020 and 2021, both of which are public interest advocacy organizations promoting governance and financial reform of the Australian higher education system. Our work has included journal publications, online policy articles, and briefings for fellow academics, senior bureaucrats, political staffers and politicians. Over the last two years I have been solo and co-author on more than a dozen publications concerning university reform in The Conversation, Pearls and Irritations and Social Alternatives.

I currently have research links with Sussex Energy Group at Sussex University, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the Department of Geography at Glasgow University, and the Department for the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma.

Together with my research partner Professor Paul Bishop in the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow, we were successful in March 2020 in securing a large research project grant from the Leverhulme Trust (UK) focusing on the transition from water-power to steam-power in the British textile industry during the long 19th century. The project combines my interests in history and archaeology with contemporary politics and policy. The project now includes Professor Simon Naylor, Dr Martin Hurst, Dr Tara Jonell and Dr Peter Jones from the University of Glasgow.

I am the current editor of Brill Academic Publisher's 'Technology and Change in History' book series, and a regular reviewer for Technology and Culture, Energy Research and Social Science and several other journals in archaeology and the history of science. I have overseen the editing and publication of eight books to date in Brill's TCH series since 2011, on topics ranging from an ancient Chinese technical treatise to shipbuilding techniques in the North Atlantic in the early modern period.

Dr Steven Walton from Michigan Technical University and I are currently working on the translation of Italian, French and German commentaries on De Architectura by the Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius, which will be published by the University of Oklahoma and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science as part of their Open Online Editions book series.

A special issue of Technology and Culture edited by me featuring several groundbreaking papers in the history of early modern technology appeared in late 2020. My most recent publications include journal articles detailing the political obstacles to decarbonisation and a sustainable energy transition for Climate Risk Management and Energy Research and Social Science and recently published book chapters for The Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism (Edward Elgar 2022) and Covid-19 and the Global Political Economy (Routledge 2022).

I also have a background in journalism and policy development and am a regular contributor to The Conversation, Michael West Media and Pearls and Irritations.