Rate My Professor Olivia Mirza

Professor Olivia Mirza serves as Professor of Civil Engineering in the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment at Western Sydney University. She earned a Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering with Honours from the University of New South Wales in 2002 through a Golden Jubilee Scholarship. After ten years as a structural engineer in industry on projects including the M7 Motorway, One Shelley Street, King Street Wharf, the Diagrid Constructed Building—which earned a 6-star Green Star "World Leader" rating—and Tower 5 of the New York World Trade Centre, she transitioned to academia. She completed her PhD at Western Sydney University in 2009 with the thesis "Behaviour and design of headed stud shear connectors in composite steel-concrete beams." A qualified forensic bridge engineer, she develops innovative retrofitting methodologies for rehabilitating and strengthening bridge structures and collaborates with Transport for New South Wales to inform Australian Bridge Standards, including confirming benefits of timber transom replacements at the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Professor Mirza's research focuses on structural engineering, fire performance of buildings, composite steel-concrete structures, macro synthetic fibre-reinforced concrete, sustainable materials, and urban living futures. She has produced 176 research outputs, including "Experimental study on fatigue behaviour of orthotropic steel decks under traffic loads" (Karimi, Mirza, Mashiri & Camille, 2026, Australian Journal of Structural Engineering), "Mechanical and thermal performance of concrete with embedded organic and inorganic PCMs for building applications" (Kahandawa Arachchi et al., 2026, Thermal Science and Engineering Progress), and "An experimental study of the mechanical properties of macro synthetic fiber-reinforced concrete" (Ali, Mirza, Camille & Mashiri, 2025). Since 2010, she has secured over $3.9 million in funding from sources such as Australian Research Council Discovery Projects, ARC Training Centres, and industry partners. She holds leadership positions as Associate Dean (Engagement), Research Theme Champion for Urban Living Futures & Society, founder of Women of Wisdom (2016), and initiator of the Indigenous ASPIRE Program to support Indigenous students in STEM. Additional roles include Vice President of Engineers Australia Sydney Division. She received the Excellence in Research Leadership & Development award in 2024.