Professor Kate Smith-Miles

Kate Smith-Miles has significant leadership experience that cuts across academic disciplines and extensive industry engagement experience. She is a Melbourne Laureate Professor of Applied Mathematics, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Capability) at The University of Melbourne. Before becoming the OPTIMA Centre Director, she was foundational Director of the Monash Academy for Cross & Interdisciplinary Mathematical Applications (MAXIMA). She recently concluded a 5-year ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship, which advanced a new methodology known as Instance Space Analysis for rigorously stress-testing algorithms to ensure trust. She has completed 7 ARC Linkage Projects, several other industry contract research projects, and has supervised over 30 PhD students and over 30 postdoctoral fellows.  She has collaborated with industry in manufacturing, energy, security, defence, healthcare, and finance. As Chair of the Advisory Board for the Choose Maths program – a $22m partnership between BHP Billiton Foundation and the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute – she has provided leadership to increase female participation in mathematics through mentoring, outreach and training.

Kate will work across the three research themes at OPTIMA
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