OPTIMA brings together a team of 19 Chief Investigators at different career stages with interdisciplinary expertise in optimisation in mathematics, computer science, statistics, engineering, and economics. Their research portfolios are complemented by three international partners and ten industry partners. Supporting this program are talented PhD candidates and research fellows based at our node universities, Monash University and the University of Melbourne.

Chief Investigators

Professor Kate Smith-Miles

Centre Director
University of Melbourne

Professor Peter Stuckey

Deputy Director
Monash University

Professor Adrian Pearce

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Uptake Theme Leader

Assoc. Professor Alysson M. Costa

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Advance Theme Leader

Professor Andreas Ernst

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Advance Theme Leader

Professor Doreen Thomas

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Guido Tack

Chief Investigator
Monash University
Integrate Theme Leader

Professor Howard Bondell

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Dr Lele (Joyce) Zhang

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Maria Garcia de la Banda

Chief Investigator
Monash University

Professor Mark Fackrell

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Michael Kirley

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne
Integrate Theme Leader

Professor Peter Taylor

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Rob J Hyndman

Chief Investigator
Monash University

Professor Tansu Alpcan

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Uwe Aickelin

Chief Investigator
The University of Melbourne

Professor Tava Olsen

The University of Melbourne

International partners

Professor Manuel Iori

Partner Investigator
UNIMORE, IT

Professor Juergen Branke

Partner Investigator
University of Warwick, UK.

Dr Anna-Lena Sachs

Partner Investigator
The University of Lancaster, UK

Project Team

Dr Charlotte Hurry

Business and Operations Manager
OPTIMA

Jason Nguyen

Software Developer
OPTIMA

Tab Sejoe

Education and Outreach Officer
OPTIMA

OPTIMA Research Fellows

Dr Jeffrey Christiansen

University of Melbourne

Dr Jip J. Dekker

Monash University

Dr Mario Andrés Muñoz

University of Melbourne

Associate Investigators

Adalberto S. Michels

University of Melbourne

Allen Zhong

Monash University

Assoc. Professor Charl Ras

University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Gerardo Berbeglia

University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Hamideh Anjomshoa

The University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Marcus Brazil

University of Melbourne

Assoc. Professor Marcus Gallagher

University of Queensland

Assoc. Professor Roberto Amadini

University of Bologna

Assoc. Professor Nir Lipovetzky

The University of Melbourne

Dr Alexander Ek

University of Melbourne

Dr Asef Nazari

Deakin University

Dr Buser Say

Monash University

Dr Christoph Bergmeir

Monash University

Dr Danial Yazdani

University of Technology Sydney

Dr Edward Lam

Monash University

Dr Ellie Hajizadeh

University of Melbourne

Dr Estefania Yap

University of Melbourne

Dr Felipe Atenas

The University of Melbourne

Dr Fotios Mourdoukoutas

The University of Hong Kong

Dr Frits de Nijs

Monash University

Dr Gleb Belov

Monash University

Dr Hadi Akbarzadeh Khorshidi

University of Melbourne

Dr Hamid Rezatofighi

Monash University

Dr Hao Wang

Monash University

Dr Hossein Alipour

University of Melbourne

Dr Ilankaikone Senthooran

Monash University

Dr Jessica Leung

Monash University

Dr João Luiz Junho Pereira

Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA)

Dr John Betts

Monash University

Dr Lachlan Andrew

University of Melbourne

Dr Long Nguyen

Monash University

Dr Long Song

University of Melbourne

Dr Mansoureh Maadi

University of Melbourne

Dr Maria Vrakopoulou

University of Melbourne

Dr Mario Boley

Monash University

Dr Matthew Burns

University of Melbourne

Dr Matthew Tam

University of Melbourne

Dr Michelle Blom

University of Melbourne

Dr Nico Andrés-Thió

University of Melbourne

Dr Rasul Esmaeilbeigi

Deakin University

Dr Reza Razzaghi

Monash University

Dr Sergey Polyakovskiy

Deakin University

Dr Simon Bowly

Monash University

Dr Terrence Mak

University of Melbourne

Dr Vera Somers

University of Melbourne

Dr Wathsala Karunarathne

University of Adelaide

Dr William Umboh

Dr William Umboh

University of Melbourne

Dr Xiaoqian Wang

Monash University

Dr Ye Pu

University of Melbourne

Dr Yuan Sun

La Trobe University

Professor Chris Leckie

University of Melbourne

Professor Frank Neumann

University of Adelaide

Prof James Bailey

Professor James Bailey

University of Melbourne

Professor Tim Fletcher

University of Melbourne

Professor Xiaodong Li

RMIT University

Research Students

Achini Erandi

University of Melbourne

Adam McGregor

Deakin University

Ahmad Amiruddin

Monash University

Amin Karimi

University of Melbourne

Amir Fayaz Heidari

University of Melbourne

Anna Vitali

University of Bologna

Ashley Hanson

University of Melbourne

Behzad Moradi

Behzad Moradi

University of Melbourne

Bhagya Rupasinghe

Monash University

Braden Kidd

Monash University

Canchen Jiang

Monash University

Daniel Bustos

University of Melbourne

David Ceddia

University of Melbourne

Drew Mitchell

Monash University

Emely Pierau

Monash University

Gonzalo Hernandez Garzon

Gonzalo Hernandez Garzon

Monash University

Hajar Sadegh Zadeh

University of Melbourne

Hamrah Kor

University of Melbourne

Hanan Alsouly

University of Melbourne

Haohan Xu

University of Melbourne

Hatice Ay

RMIT University

Helani Wickramaarachchilage

University of Melbourne

Hendrik ‘Henk” Bierlee

Monash University

Hongjie Xu

RMIT University

Hritika Gupta

University of Melbourne

Ifrah Saeed

The University of Melbourne

Jae Lee

University of Melbourne

Jalal Abdolahi

University of Melbourne

Jinqiang Yu

Monash University

Kelvin Davis

Monash University

Kelvin Liu

University of Melbourne

Lakshan Bernard

Monash University

Lei Qin

University of Melbourne

Leilah Taouk

University of Melbourne

Liam Timms

University of Melbourne

Luxin Fang

University of Melbourne

Mary Kolyaei

University of Melbourne

Milad Dehghan

Deakin University

Mitra Heidari

University of Melbourne

Nuwani Palihawadana

Monash University

Pengyuan (Py) Ding

University of Melbourne

Qian Wan

Monash University

Qingyang Li

University of Melbourne

Rehan Mendis

Monash University

Sameela Wijesundara

Monash University

Sekar Sakti

University of Melbourne

Septiana Septiana

University of Melbourne

Seyed (Sina) Mohri

University of Melbourne

Shahrzad Valizadeh

RMIT University

Shiraz (Yi) Zhen

University of Melbourne

Simone Gazza

University of Bologna

Soobok Yoon

Monash University

Vaughn Grey

University of Melbourne

Vincent Barbosa Vaz

University of Melbourne

Vishmi Fernando

RMIT University

Vivek Katial

University of Melbourne

Xia Zhou

Monash University

Xinyu (Adam) Liang

Monash University

Image of Yasir Kidwai

Yasir Kidwai

Monash University

Zahra Namazian

Monash University

Zhe Chen

Monash University

Zhuo Wei

Monash University