New directors appointed to Swinburne Research Institutes

Swinburne has appointed new Directors to two of its five research institutes.

Professor Sally McArthur and Professor Matthew Bailes have been appointed after a competitive process as the new Directors of the Manufacturing Futures Research Institute and the Data Science Research Institute respectively.

The research institutes are a key part of Swinburne’s 2025 Strategy, driving and facilitating interdisciplinary research with impact, in collaboration with industry, business and the community.

“Sally and Matthew are proven leaders and experts within their fields of biomedical engineering and astrophysics,are both passionate about developing and supporting research with impact through Swinburne’s Research Institutes,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Bronwyn Fox.

“They will work closely with our industry partners to drive interdisciplinary research collaboration across the university focused on addressing major challenges,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Bronwyn Fox.

Professor Sally McArthur - Director, Manufacturing Futures Research Institute

Professor Sally McArthur is one of Australia's leading biomedical engineers. She was the founding Director of the Swinburne Innovation Precinct and is Victorian Regional Director of the National Medical Device Partnering Program and the leader of the Biointerface Engineering Hub of the Australian National Fabrication Facilities Victoria.

As Director of the Manufacturing Futures Research Institute, Professor McArthur will focus on research-led innovation and the translation of fundamental and applied research into industrial applications. This will involve significant work in supporting the development of new, commercially focused enterprises as well as driving the PhD program at Swinburne.

Professor McArthur aims to widen the reach of the Manufacturing Futures Research Institute across the full breadth of manufacturing sectors including health, food, and renewable energies.

Professor Matthew Bailes - Director, Data Science Research Institute

Professor Matthew Bailes is an ARC Laureate Fellow and the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Professor Bailes has a long history in high-performance computing. He was the founder of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, where he drove the early development of supercomputing and advanced visualisation at Swinburne and helped establish the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing.

Professor Bailes’ interests extend beyond astrophysics. He believes data science can be used more extensively to improve the effectiveness of research, generally, and its applications to health, society and industry. In this respect, he and Swinburne colleagues Professors Richard Osborne and Gavin Lambert, organised a hackathon to develop the 'beatcovid19now' app to monitor the coronavirus pandemic disruption.

Professor Bailes’ vision for the Data Science Research Institute involves taking the latest techniques developed in fundamental research such as astrophysics and applying them to other research domains within the university in the post-COVID-19 world, particularly in the health sciences, renewable energy and other sectors where the benefits of advanced computing and machine learning are yet to be fully exploited.