OPTIMA has three governance committees and three sub-committees.

Executive committee

The OPTIMA Executive committee meets monthly to oversee the Centre’s management, operations, and performance across the two collaborating research nodes. The Executive committee receives advice from the OPTIMA Scientific Advisory Committee and the OPTIMA Industry Advisory Committee as required.

Assoc. Professor Guido Tack

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Integrate Theme Leader

Dr Charlotte Hurry

Business and Operations Manager
OPTIMA

Professor Andreas Ernst

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Advance Theme Leader

Professor Doreen Thomas

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Kate Smith-Miles

Centre Director
University of Melbourne

Professor Michael Kirley

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Integrate Theme Leader

Professor Peter Stuckey

Deputy Director
Monash University

Professor Peter Taylor

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Rob J Hyndman

Chief Investigator
Monash University

Scientific Advisory Committee

OPTIMA’s Scientific Advisory Committee provides independent scientific advice to OPTIMA investigators. The committee advises on the Centre’s scientific directions and assesses the Centre’s research quality against international standards.

Anna Lena-Sachs

Lancaster University

Barry O’Sullivan

University College Cork

Chris Beck

University of Toronto

Joanna Batstone

Monash University

Luc Vinet

IVADO

Professor Juergen Branke

Partner Investigator
University of Warwick, UK.

Sebastian Pokutta

Zib Digital

Industry Advisory Committee

OPTIMA’s Industry Advisory Committee provides industry perspectives and advice to the Centre. The committee helps identify new partnership opportunities in a variety of industry sectors, provides advice on commercialisation opportunities, and supports OPTIMA’s training agenda by providing input into OPTIMA’s mentoring and training programs for young researchers and industry practitioners.

David Scerri

Biarri

Dr Simon Bowly

Monash University

Francis Norman

Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA)

Heather St John

Innovation and Enterprise at University of Melbourne

Len Sciacca

Defence Technologies Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Melbourne

Micheal Brear

Melbourne Energy Institute

Education and training sub-committee

OPTIMA’s Education and Training Sub-Committee oversees the development of training programs that benefit the Centre members, students, and our industry partner organisations. The sub-committee also develops strategies to communicate OPTIMA’s research to the broader research community, stakeholders in various industry sectors, and liaises with the Outreach Sub-Committee for communication to the general public about the importance of optimisation and STEM technologies for better decision making in society.

Dr Hadi Akbarzadeh Khorshidi

University of Melbourne

Dr Jessica Leung

Monash University

Dr Mario Andrés Muñoz

University of Melbourne

Dr Wathsala Karunarathne

University of Adelaide

Helen Allison

Education and Outreach Officer
OPTIMA

Hritika Gupta

University of Melbourne

Professor Adrian Pearce

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Uptake Theme Leader

Professor Andreas Ernst

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Advance Theme Leader

Professor Mark Fackrell

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Peter Stuckey

Deputy Director
Monash University

Equity, diversity and inclusion sub-committee

OPTIMA’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee seeks to provide equal opportunities and equal expectations for individuals, regardless of their gender, race, culture, or sexual identity. In consultation with the Executive committee, it develops policies. It ensures that these policies are acted upon to build the foundations for an inclusive and productive centre in which all individuals can achieve their best and diversity is valued. Our EDI policy is available here.

Assoc. Professor Guido Tack

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Integrate Theme Leader

Dr Charlotte Hurry

Business and Operations Manager
OPTIMA

Dr Jip J. Dekker

Monash University

Dr Lele (Joyce) Zhang

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Helen Allison

Education and Outreach Officer
OPTIMA

Liam Timms

University of Melbourne

Soobok Yoon

Monash University

Vivek Katial

University of Melbourne

Zahra Namazian

Monash University

Zhuo Wei

Monash University

Outreach sub-committee

OPTIMA’s Outreach Sub-Committee identifies opportunities for OPTIMA members to contribute to outreach, through community, schools or industry related activities, events, and media liaison. It designs, promotes, delivers and evaluates an annual series of outreach activities to ensure the work of OPTIMA is known in the wider community.

Dr Hossein Alipour

University of Melbourne

Dr Jip J. Dekker

Monash University

Dr Matthew Burns

University of Melbourne

Dr Vera Somers

University of Melbourne

Helen Allison

Education and Outreach Officer
OPTIMA

Professor Michael Kirley

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Integrate Theme Leader

Professor Tansu Alpcan

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Theme Leaders

OPTIMA’s Theme Leaders drive the strategic direction of the three key themes: Integrate, Advance and Uptake.

Assoc. Professor Alysson M. Costa

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Advance Theme Leader

Assoc. Professor Guido Tack

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Integrate Theme Leader

Professor Andreas Ernst

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Advance Theme Leader

Professor Michael Kirley

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Integrate Theme Leader