Professor David Hill joins Monash to boost energy transition efforts

The Faculty of Engineering and Monash Energy Institute are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor David J Hill, a pre-eminent Australian researcher in the field of power and energy with a distinguished forty-year global academic career.

Through the Monash Energy Institute, Professor Hill will provide senior leadership to power and energy researchers across the faculties of Engineering, Information Technology and Business & Economics, and will focus on investing in our people and facilities in order to advance Monash’s outstanding research strengths in grid transformation. He will also supervise students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering and lead the development of new coursework offerings on the future of power and energy.

“Australia's electrical grid transformation is fundamental to addressing climate change. We must have a grid that can easily and efficiently integrate renewable energy sources to ensure cleaner, safe energy is available in our homes and communities,” said Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering Professor Scott Tyo. “Monash University already has research strengths in net zero emissions technology and economics, grid integration technology, and microgrids, and Professor Hill's appointment brings world-class leadership and outstanding research expertise that will further advance the University’s ability to tackle the global challenge of climate change.”

Professor Hill joins Monash from the University of Sydney and the University of Hong Kong, where he is Professor Emeritus, and the University of New South Wales, where he has part-time roles in the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. His research activities have been in systems and control, power networks, learning systems, and stability analysis, with an increasing focus on future power and energy systems that brings science to accelerate the clean energy transition.

He is a Life Fellow of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and a Fellow of IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control), SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics), the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Australian Academy of Science and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Professor Hill also received the 2021 IEEE Power and Energy Society Prabha S Kundur Power System Dynamics and Control Award and has been selected as the 2022 IEEE Control System Society Hendrik W Bode Lecture Prize winner.

Director of the Monash Energy Institute, Professor Ariel Liebman said, “Australia’s thin continental scale grids are leading the world with high levels of wind and solar generation. At over 25% of electricity, the technical, economic and social challenges are globally unique and solutions need to be invented here first in real-time. We’re very excited to have David’s deep technical knowledge and multidisciplinary outlook on the team to help Monash develop lasting solutions of global relevance.”

“The energy transition can be discussed theoretically in terms of many disciplines but the actual replacement of Australia’s legacy power grid, built up in stages for over 100 years, at the speed required, needs a multidisciplinary, coordinated, internationally-leading research and development effort between universities and industry,” said Professor Hill. “I look forward to joining such a collaborative program at Monash University.”

Professor Hill will commence at Monash in November 2022.