Research profile

Research interests: collaborative design and sustainability in health care; reuse, recycling and remanufacturing of medical devices; healthcare waste management; sustainable redesign of care pathways.

As a researcher, Gunn has cross-disciplinary expertise in IT product design, design engineering, architecture and anthropology and significant experience of conducting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research as an integral member of collaborative design teams involving both private and public sectors. She has developed research insights into how collaborative design processes work in engineering design as well as how anthropology can play an important role in design, whether in healthcare settings or architecture. She has an international research profile in Design Anthropology and has played a leading role in this field including contributing towards building a research agenda for the emerging field. She has  a demonstrated capacity to build research communities across different disciplines engaging a diversity of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors in the design, development and implementation of emerging and existing technologies. Research projects she has been involved have an emphasis on how technology design processes and anthropological practices can be brought together in a productive collaboration, for example in healthcare settings. She addresses key challenges in conducting interdisciplinary research with multidisciplinary design teams engaged with issues of sustainability in collaborative design processes and practices in engineering design. She has worked to define frameworks to move interdisciplinary research inquiry into collaborative design processes for example, the design of future indoor climate technologies and improving air quality in hospitals; to integrate anthropological methods and frameworks for analysis within collaborative design processes and to generate tools for engagement to communicate results of research inquiry and collaborative design in a diversity of forms to multiple stakeholders. Gunn is a contributor to the Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) plastics working group and the Low Carbon Clinical Trials Consortium directed by the UK Sustainable Healthcare Coalition (SHC). She is also a member of the GreenCare EU consortium focusing on augmenting the capacity of hospitals and healthcare to monitor, assess and improve their environmental performance and sustainability. Examples of MSc Sustainable Design Engineering thesis supervision: A Case Study on the Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Using Remanufactured Ultrasound Catheters.

Teaching profile

PhD Supervision

Administrative profile

ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS: 2021 Co-Organizer: Designing for Sustainable Healthcare Futures Symposium, Aalborg University and Monash University, 24th of November. 2012 Co-Chair. Design Anthropology panel, Participatory Innovation Conference, Swinburne Univ. of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, 12^th-14^th of January; 2010 Co-organizer panel with T. Otto & R. C. Smith. Design Anthropology: Intertwining Different Timelines, Scales and Movements. 11^th Biennial EASA European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference. Maynooth, Ireland, 25^th August.

STEERING COMMITTEES: 2011-2012 Member of steering group for accreditation of IT Product Design, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark; 2005-2008; Member of steering committee for Danish Design and Innovation Research School. Partners: Institute for Mechanics, Energy and Construction, DTU, Institute for Production and Leadership, DTU, Mads Clausen Institute, SDU, Centre for Industrial Production and Leadership, AAU, Institute for Architecture and Design AAU, Institute for Society, Development and Planning, AAU.

RECENT & CURRENT ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITIES:  External Assessor Academic Promotions, Reader, University of St. Andrews, 2021; External Reviewer Critical Conservation MDes Programme, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2019; Evaluator for Smart Loire Valley Programme Fellowship, Le Studium, Loire Valley. Institute for Advanced Studies, France, 2019; Evaluator for Research Incentive Grant, Carnegie Trust for Universities of Scotland, 2019; Assessor for Faculty Appointment as Artistic Professor in Healthcare Architecture, Department of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, 2019; Member of PhD Examination Committee, School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, 2018; Member of Evaluation Committee, Associate Prof. in Materiality & Design Anthropology, Dept. of Education, Univ. of Aarhus, 2015; Member of Evaluation Committee, Associate Prof. in Arch. Visualization, NTNU, 2015; Chair of PhD Examination Committee, Dept. of Design & Communication, Univ. of Southern Denmark, 2015; Member of Examination committee, Doctor of Education, Faculty of Education, Univ. of Glasgow, 2014; Member of Evaluation Committee, Associate Prof. in Anthropology, Dept. of Anthropology & Philosophy, Univ. of St Andrews, 2014; Member of Evaluation Committee, Hertha Firnberg-Programme, Austrian Science Council, 2014; Evaluator Post-doctoral Research Position, Veni Grant, 2013; Evaluator Post-doctoral Research Position, Rannis Icelandic Research Fund, 2012; Member of Evaluation Committee Large Grants Scheme, Carnegie Scottish Univ. Trust, 2012; Member of Evaluation Committee, Adjunct Prof. in Anthropology, Institute for Culture & Society, Univ. of Aarhus, 2012; Member of Evaluation Committee, Associate Prof. of Digital Media, Univ. of Aalborg, 2012; Evaluator Small Grants Scheme, British Academy for the Humanities & Social sciences, 2010; PhD opponent, Dept. of Architectural Design, Form & Colour Studies, NTNU, 2010; Member of Steering Committee for Danish Design & Innovation Doctoral Training Research School, 2005-2008; Chair of Evaluation Committee Post-doc Research Position in Design Anthropology, SPIRE, MCI, USD, 2008; Evaluator First Grants Scheme Application, UK Economic & Social Research Council, 2008; Evaluator Advanced Technology Projects Application, The Danish Advanced Technology Foundation, 2008; Member of Evaluation Committee, Associate Prof. in User Orientated Design & Technology Analysis, Danish Technical University, 2006.