Design Scientist

Innovating Through Design Science

With a design scientist’s lens, Dr. Sterry’s work elucidates the critical role of sustainable innovation in aligning human systems with nature.

Dr. Melissa Sterry is a leading design scientist with extensive expertise in biofuturism, biomimetics, and sustainable innovation. A chartered scientist with the Science Council, fellow of the Design Research Society, the Institute of Science and Technology, and the Royal Society of Arts, she’s also a member of the Design Council Expert Network and the National Coalition of Independent Scholars (US). Dr. Sterry’s groundbreaking research is principally concerned with redesigning material, information and production systems to work in synchronisation and symbiosis with those of the natural world – with aligning human systems with those of nature and fostering sustainable and resilient futures for the built environment.

Pioneer in Circular Design, Systems Thinking, and Resilience

Dr. Sterry’s earliest interrogations in the field date back to the early 1990s - when she conceived of the seminal concept of creating apparel collections made of biomaterials that could safely decompose in the environment at the end of use - an approach today known as cradle-to-cradle design. Today, circular design is a widely recognised approach, but her foresight in this field underscores her visionary thinking and ability to anticipate trends decades out.

Completed at the Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research Group (AVATAR) at the University of Greenwich in 2018, having been initiated at the School of Built Environment [SOBE] at University of Salford in 2010, her PhD presents an unprecedented study in designing for resilience to wildfires and other complex natural hazards through ecological systems thinking and mimicry of plant species and ecosystems that have evolved to live with wildfire. An extensive first of its kind transdisciplinary programme that she both designed and funded, the work involved research and analysis of multiple fields and wide-ranging data across the sciences, technology, engineering, design, the humanities, and the arts. Sterry has since translated the work into multiple publishing formats and languages, some of which are hosted on a purpose-built web platform, together with outputs from her post-PhD research and development programme.

A seasoned innovator and entrepreneur, Sterry pursues her research as an independent scientist, which gives her the autonomy to experiment with emerging and novel approaches to research funding, publishing, and commercial development, and to challenge norms she considers to be outdated, inequitable, and inefficient, such for example as the lag between sending papers to print and publication in academic journals. Her independence as a researcher means she can select affiliates, associates, and partners as best befits a research and development brief, as opposed to defaulting to protocols that were designed for an earlier age.

From Interdisciplinary to Transdisciplinary

A graduate of the inaugural intake of University of Salford’s Design Practice BA, which pioneered interdisciplinary studies across the fields of fashion, graphics, and spatial design, having completed several years of training across both traditional and emerging creative disciplines, including the then ‘new’ media, Melissa launched her first design-led business on graduation in 1996. Throughout her twenties and early thirties, she held roles as diverse of head of business development in a full-service design company, headhunter of executive creative talent for leading digital agencies, copious freelance and other fashion and spatial design jobs, and then board roles with a handful of influential first-to-market digital startups for which she led or co-led creative decision-making, research, development, and strategy, while also gaining hands-on knowledge of fields including intellectual property law, financing and investment, business administration, talent aquisition, team leadership, office managment, project managment, marketing and communications, press and media engagement, and client and industry relations.

Scaling Sustainability across Sectors

In her mid-thirties, having worked with issues of sustainability throughout her earlier career, including founding creative catalyst Societás, which comprised a multi award-winning sustainability innovation think tank, collaborative laboratory and strategic consultancy, Melissa focused her attention on the build environment. In 2008, she cofounded award-winning interdisciplinary collaborative innovation programme New Frontiers to provide opportunities and stimulus for new sustainable design, running seminars and facilitating online conversations through digital media including newsletters and other e-publications, and social media. Supported by 20 knowledge-sharing partners including the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Centre for Construction Innovation, Chemicals Northwest and the universities of Manchester, Loughborough and Salford, the initiative was further guided by a 30-strong panel of leaders in sustainable science, technology and design for the built environment. In this period she also completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship with commendation, further advancing her knowledge of intellectual property law, business administratino, start-up and SME financing and accounting, branding, marketing, and communications.

Additionally, in this period, Dr. Sterry embarked on a transdisciplinary investigation into the potential for building greater urban resilience to meteorological and geological hazards through mimicry of the biochemistries, behaviours, and systems of flora and fauna and gave her first keynotes to industry, academia, and the wider research and practice community on circular design, ecological and wider systems thinking, biomimicry and nature-inspired, informed, and enabled innovation, and related fields that are now commonly integrated into the still evolving domain of ‘regenerative design’.

Bio-inspired Cities of the Future

In 2010 Sterry founded award-winning Bionic City®, which the world’s first biofuturism boutique consultancy, was the seminal initiative to explore the question of “how would nature design a city?”, examining the potential of biomimetics, bioengineering, biotechnology, biodesign, and biological systems in architecture, urban planning, and utilities in the now, near, and far future. Having built a global network of affiliates, partners, and collaborators, the initiative has had widespread impact through activities including field and lab research, speculative design and fiction, workshops, lectures, advisories, wide-ranging publications, and its magazine, which has built a readership of over 68,000 and over 3,000,000 content shares since its launch in 2013. Though considerably scaled down in the twenty twenties, in celebration of Bionic City®’s 15th anniversary, a series of new projects are launching in 2025.

Her work, spanning academic research and commercial applications, integrates cutting-edge science, design, and engineering to address pressing global challenges such as climate change, urban resilience, and natural hazard mitigation.

Design for Living with Wildfire

In 2018, Sterry launched research and publishing platform Panarchic Codex® which hosting both her PhD and its legacy works, serves to provide a critical, yet creative perspective on the 'problem' of living with wildfire, while also informing wider exploration of bespoke biomimetic, bioengineered, and biotechnological architectural, urban, and landscape natural hazard resilience interventions. Drawing on leading-edge research from several scientific, technological, humanistic, and artistic domains, the transdisciplinary open access project triangulates data spanning myriad forms, disciplines, epochs, and R&D communities. Dr. Sterry’s post-PhD research activities included several field studies in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, ongoing literary reviews and other desk research, interviews with seminal researchers and practitioners working in at the edge of the fire sciences, fire engineering, data sensing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, wide-ranging bio-inspired, bio-informed, and bio-enabled fields, in natura and in vitro experiments, systems modelling, and concept development. Outputs included papers and chapters in leading peer-reviewed journals, keynote lectures at leading academic and industry conferences and gatherings, and media engagements and public communications.  

Building Capacity in Bio-innovation in Industry

Dr. Sterry’s research is driven by her passion for blending biological systems with human-designed environments. Most recently, she has launched biofuturism consultancy Bioratorium® and its labLabioratorium®, which founded in 2019, serve to interrogate possible future potentialities of bio-informed, bio-inspired, and bio-material science, technology, engineering, and design. Helping clients to identify possible risks and opportunities, including new products, markets, and business models, services include scenario planning; horizon scanning, trend identification, analysis, and extrapolation; speculative design and design fictions; workshops, masterclasses, and curated learning programmes; strategic advisories, and project mentoring.

Thought Leader and Strategic Advisor

A sought-after advisor on scientific, design, and sustainability matters, Dr. Sterry has provided strategic direction for global corporations, governments, and NGOs. Her work includes executive briefings, workshops, keynote speaking, and authoring reports and media productions that highlight critical advancements in sustainable innovation, as well as wider sustainability issues. She is also a prominent media commentator, sharing her expertise on design science and foresight globally, and has been featured, cited, and otherwise referenced in over 450 consumer, trade, and academic publications worldwide, including national newspapers across Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania, is published in over 60 titles, and has delivered over 100 invited keynotes. In 2024 a poll of 750 corporate companies voted her in the Top 20 speakers influencing sustainability at board-level globally.

Academia and Science Communications

Academically, Melissa’s experience includes visiting lecturer; visiting fellow; thesis supervisor, guest critic, external examiner, and workshop host in fields inc. biodesign, biomimetics, socio-ecological systems theory, sustainability and innovation; university assembly member, course leader, and scientific committee member at several leading architecture and design research institutes including The Bartlett[UCL], IaaC, AA School of Architecture, Central Saint Martins and the London College of Communications at University of the Arts London [UAL], University of Innsbruck, University of Greenwich, University of Salford, Ravensbourne, and AIUL, among others. Her voluntary activities include guest professor with Professors Without Borders, and guest scientist with Lecturers Without Borders.

A member/fellow of several scientific and other STEM institutions, societies, and other networks worldwide, and regular committee member, juror, and advisor to initiatives at the interface of science, design, engineering, and technology, Melissa’s perspective on advancements across these fields spans many communities of research and practice. She is known for championing transdisciplinary thinking and practice, for challenging received wisdom, for raising awareness of innovative concepts, projects, and talents, and for developing novel approaches to research that reflects the potential inherent in emerging and anticipated developments in academia, industry, and commerce.

Her most recent publications include authoring the ‘Design for Wildfire’ chapter in The Routledge Companion to Ecological Design Thinking (2022), and the ‘Panarchistic Architecture’ chapter in The Routledge Companion to Smart Design Thinking (2024), and co-authoring a report on the problem of nano and micro plastics pollution and possible means of remedy.

Specialist Expertise

Primary fields of expertise are planetary and biofutures including biodesign, bioscience, bioengineering, biotechnology, and biourbansim; emerging material, information, and production systems and their applications in science, commerce, industry, and wider society; ecological design and urban and peri-urban resilience to hazards including wildfires, floods, storms and other natural, human, and hybrid events; transdisciplinary, complexity and systems theory and practice; sustainable innovation and enterprise in fields including design, technology, manufacturing, utilities, and the built environment; and corporate social responsibility, environmental social governance, and business ethics.

Skills

• Designing research experiments, surveys, and reviews

• Hosting workshops, roundtables, and interviews

• Scenario planning, horizon scanning, and trend analysis

• Speculative design, design fictions, and post-normal science

• Authoring reports, papers, articles, and opinon pieces

• Delivering strategic advisories and project mentoring

• Science communications, and industry and public engagement

• Scripting for film, radio, and other media

Find links to select publications Dr. Sterry has authored here.  View her resume here, and her wider biography here.

5x15

2Degrees Live conference

Accenture

ADAPTr BioSalon

Architecture Conference & Expo

Balfour Beatty

BBC Radio 4

BioChanges at RCA

BioEngineering Congress

Canadian Institute of Planners

Chartered Institute of Building

City of Greater Dandenong

Clerkenwell Design Week

Coventry University

CRG Exchange

Ecobuild conference

Edinburgh International Science Festival

easyJet

European Centre for Ecotoxicology & Toxicology of Chemicals

Festival of the Future City

Forum for the Built Environment

Future Cities Catapult

Global Research & Innovations in Plastics Sustainability

Greengaged by the Design Council

Grosvenor

Hay Festival

Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Interface

International Conference of Bionic Engineering

Inventing the Future conference

Knowledge Transfer Network

London Aware

London Design Biennale

London Design Festival

Longitude Prize

Lux magazine

Manchester International Festival

McGraw-Hill Publishing

McKinsey

Media Ecology & Post Industrial Production conf.

Methven

Ministry of Defence

NESTA

New Engineering Foundation

NSG Group

Oslo Architecture Triennale

Quantum Black

Ravensbourne

Re:Work Cities conference

Routledge

Schneider Electric

Sci-Fi London Film Festival

Science Museum 

Seven

Sheppard Robson

Sherborne Girls

Smart City Futures conference

SOENECS

Space10

Startalk Live

SUEZ group

Sustainable Business in Practice conference

Sustainable Design Network Annual Seminar

TEDxLSE - London School of Economics

The Drum - 4 Minute Warning conference

The Future We Want conference

The Future of Housing conference

The Future We Choose launch

The Monument - Masterclasses

Tomorrow's Natural Business conference

Toyota Motors Europe

UK Aware expo

Unbox conference

Unilever

University College London

University College of Estate Management

University College of the Arts

University of Cambridge - Festival of Ideas

University of Greenwich

University of Oxford - Climate Forum

University of Salford

University of Warwick

V&A Museum

Vision London: The Future of the Built Environment

WILD: ReNaturing the City

Wilderness festival

World Bank

World Congress on Sustainable Technologies

Write the Future conference

UBM