Lorrae’s research and teaching interests include qualitative and integrative research methods, particularly as they contribute to decision-making and action in the arenas of futures thinking, adaptation, sustainability and water. She is particularly interested in the role of science in governance, decision-and policy-making as it relates to sustainability; north-south research collaborations; and institutional influences on the governance of knowledge. Lorrae is currently an Associate Editor for Environmental Science and Policy, and on the editorial board for the journal Challenges in Sustainability.

Lorrae van Kerkhoff is a Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, and Director of the ANU Institute for Water Futures. She convenes the Bachelor of Environment and Sustainability degree program, and teaches first, second and third year undergraduates, as well as supervising graduate students. She holds a PhD from ANU and was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health from 2003-2008, and spent 2004-5 with Harvard's Center for International Development, supported by a Fulbright Post-doctoral Fellowship and a Land and Water Australia Travelling Fellowship. While there she worked on the concept of knowledge systems for sustainability, and now focuses her research on knowledge governance and its relationship to social-ecological change. Her work brings together concepts from Science and Technology Studies with Sustainability Science. She has published extensively on integrative and transdisciplinary research concepts and methods, and recently on knowledge governance and ‘future-oriented’ approaches to conservation.