Gavin Melles is an Adjunct Professor in Sustainability at Swinburne University's School of Design and a system dynamics researcher whose work bridges academic modelling, sustainability policy, and practical industry accreditation in the built environment. His current research develops system dynamics models of complex socio-technical challenges, with a particular focus on Australian housing affordability, construction capacity constraints, and the circular economy. His previous research has focused on sustainability reporting. He is the editor and author of three Springer Books on topics related to deisng and sustainability.

Melles's most recent publication, Structural Capacity Constraints in Australia's Housing Crisis: A System Dynamics Analysis of the National Housing Accord's Unachievable Targets (Systems, 2026), establishes a construction completions ceiling for Australia and has become a calibration anchor for subsequent modelling work. He has also published system dynamics modelling of membrane technology deployment (Frontiers in Membrane Science and Technology, 2026), and earlier work on the transition from circular economy to circular society in Australia (Sustainability, 2021) and on causal loop diagramming for teaching sustainable development (Springer, 2021).

Alongside this research, Melles maintains an active professional practice as a NatHERS-accredited Thermal Energy Assessor with Design Matters National, providing residential energy performance ratings, Whole of Home, and BASIX assessments — a practical grounding in building performance that directly informs his academic work on housing and construction.

Melles's research leadership spans more than $2.8 million in competitive grant funding as Chief Investigator, including the Victorian Circular Activator (CEBIC/Recycling Victoria Innovation Fund), two Collaborative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living projects on housing carbon reduction and mobile learning, an AutoCRC project on human-centred design for electric vehicle bus systems, and a seven-university Australia–EU joint mobility project. He has held further Chief Investigator and PhD supervisory roles across additional Collaborative Research Centre projects, including the CRC for Bushfire and Natural Hazards, with associated HERDC-assigned grant income exceeding $1 million.

His international research career includes fellowships and exchanges with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at TU Dresden, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the HCI Research Center at RWTH Aachen, a nominated fellowship at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, a Swedish STINT collaboration grant with Linköping University, a GIAN teaching fellowship at NIT Silchar in India, and a research fellowship in the Department of Management at IIT Madras. He currently teaches sustainable supply chain management and sustainable financial management at RMIT, and has held visiting and instructing positions at Kathmandu University and Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Melles contributes to the international research community as a grant assessor for the Australian Research Council, Singapore's Ministry of Education, EURIAS Fellowships, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the UK's Leverhulme Trust, and serves as an international PhD examiner for universities in Germany, Australia, Colombia, Canada, and New Zealand. He supervises PhD students researching the design of innovations across sustainability contexts, and consults to industry and community on sustainability and system dynamics.