Meet the researchers
Dr Louise Bennett
Food scienceLouise’s interest is in fundamental and applied research in the food industry. Her work focusses on the bio-functional properties of food and their impact on human health. She is also interested in the nutritional composition of food and food products. Louise has a strong record of industry engagement and is committed to the translation of research outcomes to benefit the community.
Dr Christoph Bergmeir
Machine learning Artificial IntelligenceChristoph Bergmeir is a Lecturer and a 2019 ARC DECRA Fellow in the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Monash University. He is interested in the application of Machine Learning and AI to real-world problems, and has worked extensively with industry on a range of projects, including modelling and prediction for both medical and industrial applications.
Dr Chao Chen
Robotics Optimisation Machine learningDr Chen directs The Laboratory of Motion Generation and Analysis (LMGA) which conducts applied researches in autonomous agriculture robots and fundamental researches on motion analysis and robotics.
Professor Wenlong Cheng
(Bio)sensors and Autonomous systemsProfessor Cheng is interested in interactions between nano- and biological materials for the design nanobionic material systems and nanobioelectronic devices. His research group within the Department of Chemical Engineering takes an interdisciplinary approach and is currently working on projects on the remote detection of biomolecules with wearable sensors and diagnostic devices. Such research capability can be extended to remote agriculture monitoring.
Professor Wing Chiu
UAV based mappingWing has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (University of Western Australia). His main areas of expertise are in structural mechanics, failure analysis, fatigue analysis, noise control and mechanical vibrations. His interests in engineering have been applied to a broad spectrum of rea-life situations including aircraft structures, water supply pipes and medical science.
Dr Rohan Clarke
UAV based mapping ClimateRohan is the Director of the Drone Discovery Platform at Monash, where he oversees the use of drones and air-borne sensors across the university. He is also a Senior Lecturer within the School of Biological Sciences and is interested in the ecology of Australian birds, including threatened species management, bird migration, and movement of avian pathogens.
Dr Simon Corrie
(Bio)sensorsSimon leads the Nanosensor Engineering Lab where his research is focussed on developing nanoparticle-based molecular sensors to detect and monitor biological processes and compounds e.g. proteins, and metabolic biomarkers. His interdisciplinary approach to research spans materials science, chemistry and molecular biology and he is now looking for new applications for his work in the AgTech sector.
Dr Akansel Cosgun
Machine learning Robotics Human computer interactionAkansel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering where he works to develop robotic systems that can do useful tasks in the real world. He is an expert in computer vision, machine learning, human-robot interaction and mechatronics.
Professor Elizabeth Croft
Robotics (Bio)sensors and Autonomous systems Human computer interactionProfessor Croft is recognised as an expert in the field of human robotic interaction. As principal investigator for a world class robotics lab, she has successfully led large-scale collaborative research projects utilising robots in manufacturing.
Associate Professor Edoardo Daly
Soil Moisture Hydrological modellingEdoardo is an associate professor in Water Engineering. He has a Masters of Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Hydraulic Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, italy. His research focuses on eco-hydrology, which studies the links between ecosystems and the water cycle, addressing problems related to water resources management in agricultural and urban catchments.
Dr Sushil Dhital
Food scienceSushil investigates the structure-property-function-health relationships of food and food ingredients. He uses an applied and interdisciplinary approach to understand how plant molecular structure impacts macroscopic properties of food.
Associate Professor Alan Dorin
Simulation Artifical intelligence Ecology and BiodiversityAlan’s main interests revolve around artificial life, ecological modelling, biologically-inspired electronic media art and generative art. He researches the ways in which technology assists discovery in the ecological sciences and in human creativity.
Professor Tom Drummond
Robotics Machine learningTom has a BA(Hons) in mathematics and a MA (University of Cambridge) as well as a PhD in Computer Science (Curtin University). His main research output currently consists of robotics.
Associate Professor Tim Dwyer
Data visualisation OptimisationTim is an Associate Professor within the Faculty of Information Technology and Associate Dean of External Engagement with key interests in information visualisation and visual analytics.
Dr Barret Ens
Human computer interaction Data visualisationBarrett works in the Immersive Analytics research group within the Faculty of IT and is interested in novel inputs for augmented and virtual reality, immersive analytics and situated data visualisation. He aims to take advantage of new technologies to integrate computing activities with our physical environments, such as IoT and wearable devices, and use these to solve everyday problems.
Dr Ying Gao
Soil chemistry and Moisture Remote Sensing (Bio)sensors and Autonomous SystemsDr Ying Gao is a research fellow in Civil Engineering. Her major research areas are soil moisture harmonization from multi-frequency satellite observations, passive microwave soil moisture retrieval, optical sensing of vegetation and soil roughness characterization. Her recent research works on drone-based soil moisture mapping are of significant contributions.
Professor Roslyn Gleadow
Climate NutrigenomicsRos researches the effect of climate change on food security with a focus on plants that make cyanide such as sorghum, clover and cassava and cause diseases in humans and animals. She uses biotechnology, automated phenotyping, and classical field and greenhouse experimental systems.
Professor John Grundy
Machine learning Human computer interactionProfessor John Grundy is the senior deputy dean for the faculty of information technology and works heavily within the faculty to find improvements for software and interfaces. His current research is focused on software tools and techniques, software architecture, model-driven software engineering, visual languages, and user interfaces.
Andreas Hamacher
Data visualisationAndreas is a software developer with a history in scientific visualisation applications and research. He worked to operate a CAVE system and helps researchers apply visualisation and VR methods to their fields.
Associate Professor Victoria Haritos
Food science Thermal processing technologiesVictoria is interested in the discovery and design of enzymes for use as biocatalysts in for food processing. Her research brings together biology and engineering to address future manufacturing needs, including improved thermal processing outcomes for nutrient preservation and conversion of food waste to useable products with yeast and has worked closely with industry.
Dr Asadul Haque
Data visualisation Soil ChemistryAsadul is a senior lecturer in Civil Engineering. He has been conducting research in two major areas: critical infrastructure and carbon-sequestration. His works on the microstructural evolution of soils subjected to insitu X-Ray CT imaging, rock socket piles and improvement of soft soils using industrial by-products are of significant contributions.
Professor Sisira Jayasuriya
Policy EconomicsSisira is a development economist with a focus on economic policy issues in Asia. His current research interests include Impact of COVID-19 on Asian economies, food security, agricultural policy reforms and political economy of South Asia, and the economics of natural disasters.
Associate Professor Lindsay Kleeman
RoboticsLindsay is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash. He has over a hundred research publications in the areas of robotics, sensing and digital systems. His other key research interests include FPGA vision systems, mobile robot exploration, localisation and mapping.
Professor Dana Kulić
Robotics (Bio)sensors and Autonomous systems Human computer interactionProfessor Dana Kulić has been appointed to lead the planning and establishment of a new robotics research facility. Her main interests include robot learning, humanoid robots, human-robot interaction and mechatronics. She hopes to use robotics to benefit AgTech development with robots that work in a human environment with and for people.
Professor Jeffrey LaFrance
Policy Land useJeffrey is a Professor in the Department of Economics whose research interests span econometrics, land degradation and sustainable agriculture, natural resource use and management, demand theory, nutrition and agricultural policy analysis.
Associate Professor Joseph Liu
Machine learning OptimisationJoseph leads the Monash Cybersecurity Group and his research interests include cybersecurity, blockchain, IoT and applied cryptography. He established the Monash Blockchain Technology Centre and serves as the centre director. He was the recipient of the Australian Computer Society’s ICT Researcher of the Year award in 2018.
Associate Professor Karinne Ludlow
Policy Law RegulationKarinne is an expert in the integration of science, law and the challenges to commercialisation. She is interested in the regulation of and legal challenges for emerging technologies including biotechnology, nanotechnology and remote sensing.
Professor Douglas MacFarlane
Advanced oxidation technologiesDouglas’s work focuses on the development and application of ionic liquids and new materials for green chemistry and biotechnology. His research includes energy storage device applications, including the design of electro-chemical devices to generate carbon-free ammonia with the potential for sustainable fertiliser production.
Professor Bernd Meyer
Machine learning (Bio)sensors and Autonomous systemsBernd investigates topics in computational ecology, where he develops mathematical and computational models for the interactions of organisms with their environmeFonnt. His work is centred on the collective behaviour of social insects in the hope that a deeper understanding of their behaviour will allow us to better protect them and their ecosystem.
Professor Adrian Neild
Membrane research and Biofilters OptimisationAdrian has a PhD in Engineering (University of Warwick) and is a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Monash. His research interests are in the field of microsystems, specialising in microfluidics, his work examines the use of acoustics for actuation of microfluidic systems, particle manipulation, fluid handling and cell culturing.
Professor Ann Nicholson
Machine learning Artificial intelligence Atmospheric and Hydrological modellingAnn Nicholson is a Professor and Deputy Dean Research in the Faculty of Information Technology. Ann’s primary expertise is in Bayesian Networks, used for probabilistic causal modelling in intelligent systems. She applies Bayesian Network technology to problem-solving in many domains including meteorology, epidemiology, medicine, education, environmental science and AgTech.
Professor Marc Parlange
Atmospheric and hydrological modellingProfessor Parlange is recognised internationally for his expertise in hydrology and fluid mechanics in the environment. His contributions primarily relate to regional scale water resources research, evaporation, soil physics, field campaigns and the simulation of air and water flows over complex terrain.
Professor Antonio Patti
Science Chemistry Soil chemistry and Moisture Food scienceTony’s research areas of interest are in the chemistry and applications of natural organic matter including food production/consumption, production of chemicals from biomass, chemistry of soil organic matter and the application of green chemistry in agriculture.
Associate Professor Valentijn Pauwels
Atmospheric and Hydrological modelling Remote sensingValentijn has a Masters in Agricultural Engineering (Ghent University) and a PhD in Civil Engineering and Operations Research (Princeton University) He is currently an associate professor in Water Engineering. His research at Monash is mainly focused on floods, specifically, flood forecasting and flood damage mitigation.
Professor Sarah Pink
Machine learning Optimisation (Bio)sensors and Autonomous systemsProfessor Sarah Pink is director of the Emerging Technologies Research Lab where she undertakes critical interdisciplinary and international research about the use and futures of new and emerging technologies. Her main research interests include emerging intelligent technologies, automation, data, digital futures, safety and design for wellbeing.
Dr Matt Piper
NutrigenomicsMatt’s research aims to understand the interaction between an organism, nutrition and its environment by using the model organism D. melanogaster. This involves altering the fly’s ability to seek out, consume, absorb and metabolise various nutrients in a manner that is sensitive to their nutritional history as well as current and perceived future experiences.
Associate Professor Christoph Rudiger
Atmospheric and hydrological modelling Climate Remote sensingChristoph is particularly interested in the use of remote sensing platforms for the monitoring of land surface parameters and their interactions for the prediction of extreme events, such as a droughts and wildfires, and their subsequent impact in agricultural applications.
Professor Amrik Sohal
Supply chain EconomicsAmrik is a world leader in the field of operations and supply chain management. His research interests include operations strategy, continuous improvement, digital supply chains, circular economy and sustainable production/procurement and consumption.
Dr Joanne Tanner
Thermal processing technologiesJoanne is interested in sustainability and biorefinery and she works closely with industry to create a more sustainable fuels and chemicals industry. Her research interests include reactor design and development, and bioresource processing.
Professor Nigel Tapper
Climate Atmospheric and Hydrological modelling UAV based mappingProfessor Nigel Tapper leads the Environmental Climatology Group within the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. His research aims to understand the impact of weather and climate on urban environments, focussing on smarter urban design. Nigel is the founder of the Monash Sustainability Institute and works as a project lead within the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities.
Dr Adel Nadjaran Toosi
Optimisation Machine learning (Bio)sensors and Autonomous SystemsAdel joined the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University in 2018 and has made significant contributions to the areas of resource management and software systems for cloud computing. His research interests include Distributed Systems, Cloud/Fog/Edge Computing, Internet-of-things, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Green and Energy-Efficient Computing.
Dr Christian Urich
Atmospheric and Hydrological modelling Climate Data visualisationChristian is a lecturer in Civil Engineering and is part of the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, working in closely with economists, urban designers and social scientists. He leads interdisciplinary work on developing decision support and benchmarking tools that integrate the biophysical, social and economic dimensions of a city’s integrated urban water system to inform adaptive policy planning.
Dr Leonie van t' Hag
Food science Thermal processing technologiesLeonie leads the Hybrid Assembly Group within the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash. Her research aims to improve production and processing of foods and pharmaceuticals by understanding structure-property relationships.
Professor Nico Voelker
(Bio)sensors and Autonomous systems Thermal processing technologies Membrane research and BiofiltersNicolas is the Director of the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication where he works with industry on projects involving materials and coating technologies, e.g. membranes and sensors. He also researches the development of chemo- and biosensors for applications in environmental monitoring, food quality and veterinary and human medical diagnostics.
Professor Hai Vu
Data visualisation Machine learning OptimisationHai is a Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the area of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). His research interests include monitoring, modelling, performance evaluation and design of complex networks (e.g. data and transportation networks), stochastic optimisation and control with applications.
Professor Jeffrey Walker
(Bio)sensors and Autonomous systems Atmospheric and hydrological modelling Optimisation Remote sensingJeff is currently researching technologies for soil moisture remote sensing and data assimilation, including development of the only Australian airborne capability for simulating new satellite missions for soil moisture. He has contributed to many soil moisture satellite missions including at both NASA and ESA.
Professor Mark Wallace
Optimisation Human Computer InteractionProfessor Wallace is a leader in discrete optimisation in the Faculty of Information Technology. He is passionate about modelling and optimisation and the benefits they bring with his focus both in industry and University being on application-driven research and development.
Professor Geoff Webb
Machine learningGeoff is a leading data scientist and the only Australian to have been Program Committee Chair of the two leading Data Mining conferences,ACM SIGKDD and IEEE ICDM. He is the author of the Magnum Opus commercial data mining software package.
Professor Gary Williamson
NutrigenomicsProfessor Gary Williamson is the head of the Department of Nutrition Dietetics & Food at Monash. He is interested in the link between diet and metabolism, including the impact of food nutrient composition on human health. His work on the bioavailability of polyphenols and their role in cellular metabolism has contributed to the understanding of important risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
Dr Vanessa Wong
Soil Chemistry UAV based mappingVanessa is interested in the spatial and temporal interactions between soils, sediments and water at a range of scales. Her research focuses on understanding how land management and human impacts affect biogeochemical processes in a range of environments, including agricultural landscapes and natural systems.
Professor Xiwang Zhang
Membrane research and Biofilters Thermal processing technologies Advanced oxidation technologiesProfessor Zhang is a professor in the department of chemical engineering at Monash and was awarded the prestigious ARC Australian Research Fellowship in 2010 and awarded the Larkins Fellowship in 2012 by Monash University. His main research interest focus is on membrane and advanced oxidation technology research for water and wastewater treatment.