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Professor receives global futurist award
A University of the Sunshine Coast Adjunct Professor who works to educate business, not-for-profit and government organisations on what the future holds has received a global award.
Sohail Inayatullah received one of four 2010 Laurel Awards for all-time best futurists, after a vote by almost 3,000 of his colleagues in the global Foresight Network.
“I’m delighted and surprised to see my name alongside the likes of Alvin Toffler, whose theories influenced me at high school in Malaysia decades ago,” said Professor Inayatullah, whose PhD from the University of Hawaii was in political science.
Alvin Toffler is one of the founders of futures studies and the author of ‘Future Shock’ and ‘The Third Wave’. He helped predict trends such as corporate outsourcing and restructuring and has advised world leaders on change issues.
USC Professor Inayatullah, who has lived at Mooloolaba for the past decade but spends several months a year working internationally, recently consulted for a global cola drink company about changing health paradigms.
This year he will work with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; the Asia-Europe Interregional Forum; the Victorian Court System, insurer BUPA; the Organisation of Islamic Conference standing committee on science and technology; Europol/Australia Federal Police; Tamkang University, Taiwan and the Pakistan Ministry of Commerce, among others.
At USC, Professor Inayatullah has supervised PhD students on topics ranging from the futures of Queensland’s public service to foresight in Maroochy Shire to the changing nature of intelligence.
He said futures studies involved activism, research and citizen visioning. It intends to facilitate discussion between people who are experts in their fields about possible future outcomes and how these can be altered.
“It’s about empowering people in organisations to create better futures,” he said.
The University of the Sunshine Coast now offers a Graduate Certificate in Futures Studies, coordinated by Dr Marcus Bussey.
USC Professor Inayatullah recently listed Seven Positive Trends on his co-hosted website www.metafuture.org. These included:
• the increasing availability of personal genetic information to improve health advice (given forecasts that within 10 years every baby will get a genome map);
• the broadening and deepening of democracy by local governments to include community visioning; and
• the growing business focus on triple bottom lines (financial, environmental and social) instead of only profits as measures of success.
– Julie Gatehouse