Awais Piracha is an urban planning academic and practitioner with the Western Sydney University in Australia. He is a renowned international expert in the areas of sustainable urban development and use of spatial analysis in land use and transport planning. Awais Piracha was trained as a civil/environmental engineer as well as a town planner. He is a Planning Institute of Australia Registered Practicing Planner and an NSW Local Planning Panel Expert. He served on the Western Sydney Transport Infrastructure Panel appointed by the Prime Minister of Australia in 2022-23. He previously worked as a researcher with the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok and University of Dortmund Germany. In his professional career spanning over two decades, Awais Piracha has led or participated in numerous research and consultancy projects as an urban and transport planning expert. Awais Piracha has conducted contract research for the World Bank, Nanjing City, Landcom NSW,Transport for NSW, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and other entities.