March 25, 2022
Professor Robyn Owens FAA FTSE has been appointed inaugural Chair of ACCESS-NRI Board, bringing her extensive experience in research leadership and a sustained track record of engagement with national collaborative research infrastructure capabilities.
Professor Owens’ research background is in mathematics, applied to computer vision and robotics. Her research was primarily in computer vision, where she contributed to both theoretical and applied aspects of feature recognition in images and image understanding.
Professor Owens has over 30-years’ experience working as a teacher, researcher, and university leader, focusing on strategy and national policy. Her work has been acknowledged with several national and international awards, including the 2010 UK Rank Prize.
She brings extensive experience in research leadership, having served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research from 2010 to 2019 at the University of Western Australia. Elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2020, she has a sustained track record of engagement with national collaborative research infrastructure capabilities, as well as in promoting women in science and STEM education.
Professor Owens is also an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering, and the Australian Computer Society. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and of the Vincent Fairfax Ethical Leadership Program. She currently sits on the Senate of Murdoch University and a number of research-related advisory boards.