Newly awarded Distinguished Professorships recognise excellence in research and leadership

Newly awarded Distinguished Professorships recognise excellence in research and leadership

Nine academics from across RMIT University have received the high honour, which is awarded to Level E academics who have achieved outstanding impact throughout their career.

Distinguished Professors exemplify the breadth of excellence valued by the University, demonstrating sustained achievement across eight key elements spanning Leadership and Community Engagement, Research, and Learning and Teaching.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation, Distinguished Professor Calum Drummond AO congratulated the newly appointed Distinguished Professors.

“This recognition highlights the positive impact our newly appointed and re-awarded Distinguished Professors have on RMIT and beyond.

 “Through their outstanding leadership, dedication to advancing knowledge, driving innovation, and supporting the academic endeavour, they continue to set new standards for excellence,” Drummond said.

Congratulations to the following Distinguished Professors. You can read more about them below.

Award of Distinguished Professor title (term: 1 January 2026 – 31 December 2030)

  • Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, College of Business and Law
  • Professor Tracy Taylor, College of Business and Law
  • Professor Matthew Warren, College of Business and Law
  • Professor Vipul Bansal, STEM College
  • Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, STEM College
  • Professor Lisa Given, STEM College and College of Design and Social Context
  • Professor Pier Marzocca, STEM College
  • Professor Sujeeva Setunge, STEM College
  • Professor Karin Verspoor, STEM College

Renewal of Distinguished Professor title (term: 1 January 2026 – 31 December 2030)

  • Distinguished Professor Andy Ball, STEM College
  • Distinguished Professor Suresh Bhargava AM, STEM College
  • Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell, STEM College
  • Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski, STEM College
  • Distinguished Professor Larissa Hjorth, College of Design and Social Context
  • Distinguished Professor Helen Lingard, College of Design and Social Context
20 January 2026

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Distinguished Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, College of Business and LawDistinguished Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill.

Distinguished Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, College of Business and Law 

Distinguished Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill is the co-director of RMIT’s Centre for African Engagement and Director of the Centre for International Development.  

Awaworyi Churchill is an internationally recognised applied economist whose research on development economics has shaped international policy conversations and guided actionable change for marginalised communities.  

Awaworyi Churchill has received many prestigious accolades and been recognised as one of Australia's top five researchers in social science by The Australian Research Magazine. He is a Stanford/Elsevier top-cited researcher, ranked in the top 2% of researchers worldwide for five consecutive years (2021-2025). He has garnered over $5.6m in competitive funding, including grants from the Australian Research Council, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.  

Awaworyi Churchill is committed to addressing pressing social and economic challenges, actively collaborating with academic, government and international organisations, including the United Nations, to promote evidence-based policy for sustainable and equitable development. 

Distinguished Professor Tracy Taylor, College of Business and LawDistinguished Professor Tracy Taylor.

Distinguished Professor Tracy Taylor, College of Business and Law 

Across her 30+ year career in higher education, Distinguished Professor Tracy Taylor has held senior management positions in research, international and transnational education, and learning and teaching. She is currently serving as the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation, in the College of Business and Law. 

An internationally recognised sports management scholar, Taylor has made significant contributions to the field as a leader of national and international professional associations, as well as Chief Editor of leading journals. 

Taylor’s collaborations with industry, community and government stakeholders have served to create tangible inclusion and diversity outcomes for women and girls in sport. Taylor is passionate about capacity building in sport, working with organisations across Asia, Africa, and Europe to deliver positive impact with and through sport. 

As a leading educator, Taylor has advanced business education by providing mentorship and supervision to both students and scholars across the globe. She has also led national initiatives on business journal rankings, the societal impact of business schools and internationalisation that have shaped international accreditation standards. 

Distinguished Professor Matthew Warren, College of Business and LawDistinguished Professor Matthew Warren.

Distinguished Professor Matthew Warren, College of Business and Law 

As Director of the RMIT Centre of Cyber Security Research and Innovation, Distinguished Professor Matthew (Matt) Warren leads with vision and purpose. 

Under his leadership, this multidisciplinary centre has become home to over 50 researchers and is recognised as one of Australia’s top cyber security research centres, attracting $16.6m in research funding and publishing over 1,000 research publications. 

Warren’s research goes beyond the technical aspects of cyber security to include human and organisational factors. A recent key project he led in partnership with the Australia Women in Security Network examined gender representation in Australia’s cyber security workforce, with the findings going on to support the development of a more diverse cyber workforce.  

His global perspective has enabled him to work with diverse teams from around the world, an example being the development of the Australian Lithuanian Cyber Research Network (ALCRN). Warren has also been recognised with numerous grants and awards, notably winning Cyber Security Researcher of the Year by the Australian Information Security Association on two occasions.

Distinguished Professor Vipul Bansal, STEM CollegeDistinguished Professor Vipul Bansal.

Distinguished Professor Vipul Bansal, STEM College

Distinguished Professor Vipul Bansal is an internationally recognised leader in translational materials chemistry, nanobiotechnology and medical technologies (MedTech) whose research has advanced the development of technologies, policies and regulations that benefit health, industry and society.

As Founding Director of the Sir Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility at RMIT, Bansal created one of RMIT’s first interdisciplinary research platforms, setting a benchmark for purposeful academic leadership. An ongoing focus of his leadership is to support the next generation of technopreneurs who can translate university IP from the lab to the real world.

He currently leads a large-scale partnership between RMIT, Nexsen Limited and clinical and regulatory partners to deliver diagnostic technologies.  

His work with Nexsen includes advancing the clinical adoption of StrepSure® – a rapid point-of-care biosensor for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) bacteria in pregnant women to avoid neonatal deaths – as well as KidneySure™, which is particularly focused on progressing Closing the Gap health outcomes in Indigenous communities by enabling early detection of acute kidney injury (AKI).

Distinguished Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, STEM CollegeDistinguished Professor Madhu Bhaskaran.

Distinguished Professor Madhu Bhaskaran, STEM College 

Distinguished Professor Madhu Bhaskaran is a multi-award-winning electronics engineer and innovator and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering. 

Through her patented work on electronic skin and wearable sensors, Bhaskaran is transforming how we imagine, use and interact with electronic devices. 

As co-lead of the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT, which she established in 2010, Bhaskaran actively bridges the gap between fundamental science and commercial application. She engages extensively with Australian industry, manufacturing and design partners to commercialise her technology to improve health care, aged care and quality of life.  

Recognised as one of Australia’s top 100 innovators by The Australian in 2025, she is also the Director of RMIT's Discovery to Device MedTech Prototyping Facility and serves numerous leadership roles in ARC Centre of Excellence and ARC Research Hubs. 

She is a prominent advocate for diversity and inclusion in STEMM, co-founding the Women Researchers' Network at RMIT. She is also on the Advisory Board for STEMM Sisters and proudly co-leads Women in STEMM Australia. 

Distinguished Professor Lisa Given, Research and Innovation PortfolioDistinguished Professor Lisa Given.

Distinguished Professor Lisa Given, STEM College and College of Design and Social Context

Distinguished Professor Lisa Given is the Director and Co-Founder of the Centre for Human-AI Information Environments, and Director of the Social Change Enabling Impact Platform at RMIT.

Given is an interdisciplinary researcher in human information behaviour whose work brings a critical social research lens to studies of technology use and user-focused design. She works with research teams around the globe, across disciplines.

An award-winning scholar and mentor, she has been awarded $11.37m in funding from the Australian Research Council, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, and Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, among other agencies, working with university and community partners across disciplines. 

A Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the international Association for Information Science and Technology, her studies embed social change, focusing on diverse settings and populations, and methodological innovations across disciplines.

Given has published 235+ books, journal articles and 160+ refereed conference presentations, among other publications. Since 2021 she has been recognised annually as a top 2% global scientist by Elsevier/Stanford. Given has supervised 46 HDR students to completion, including 26 as principal supervisor.

Distinguished Professor Pier Marzocca, STEM CollegeDistinguished Professor Pier Marzocca.

Distinguished Professor Pier Marzocca, STEM College

Distinguished Professor Pier Marzocca has played a pivotal role in driving significant initiatives within the aerospace and Australian defence sectors.

Over the last decade, Marzocca has served as lead or co-investigator on projects worth more than $40m, advancing key programs in digital twin technologies, structural diagnostics and uncrewed systems.

As Director of the Sir Lawrence Wackett Aerospace and Defence Centre and program architect of two Joint Defence Chairs with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG), he has cultivated long-term strategic partnerships that reinforce RMIT’s position as a national leader in aerospace innovation and defence sustainment. 

Marzocca is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of leaders, supporting over 20 early career/mid-career academics in achieving promotions and research success, and supervising over 20 HDR students to completion. His mentoring extends beyond technical guidance, nurturing leadership skills and fostering diversity in the aerospace and defence sectors.

Distinguished Professor Sujeeva Setunge, STEM CollegeDistinguished Professor Sujeeva Setunge.

Distinguished Professor Sujeeva Setunge, STEM College

Distinguished Professor Sujeeva Setunge has held numerous leadership roles at RMIT and currently leads the STEM College research portfolio as Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation.

A Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer, Setunge is a prolific researcher specialising in low-carbon materials, concrete structures, predictive modelling and digital twins for civil infrastructure. She has authored more than 300 publications, supervised 55 HDR completions, and was recognised as a Stanford/Elsevier top 2% scientist in 2024 and 2025.

Renowned for cross-disciplinary leadership, Setunge has led large, complex initiatives delivering impact for industry and community. Under her leadership, the $21 million ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub TREMS has brought together nine Australian and four international universities with 33 industry partners to deliver over 30 solutions towards a net zero future. 

Her research also underpins the commercially deployed Central Asset Management System (CAMS), which supports more than 4,000 facilities across Australia and internationally, including critical infrastructure such as railways and public buildings.

Distinguished Professor Karin Verspoor, STEM CollegeDistinguished Professor Karin Verspoor.

Distinguished Professor Karin Verspoor, STEM College

Distinguished Professor Karin Verspoor is Dean of the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT.

Verspoor is passionate about using artificial intelligence to enable biological discovery and clinical decision support from data. Her work has a specific emphasis on the use of natural language processing to transform unstructured data in biomedicine into actionable information.

For over two decades, she has made significant contributions through her interdisciplinary work in digital health, bioinformatics and cheminformatics, receiving numerous awards and accolades during this time. Most recently, she was selected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and for the past few years she has consistently been recognised as a top 2% scientist by Elsevier/Stanford. 

Verspoor is also a champion of diversity and inclusion in STEM and has led strategic initiatives at RMIT and beyond to support women and girls in technology.

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20 January 2026

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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