Alex Zelinsky

• Centre Advisory Board Chair
• LinkedIn Profile
• University of Newcastle
• 2014 - 2020

Professor Alex Zelinsky is the Chair of the Centre’s Advisory Board, and Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Newcastle.

Prior to joining the University, Alex was Australia’s Chief Defence Scientist and head of the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group. Before joining Defence, Alex was Group Executive for Information Sciences at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Director of CSIRO’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Centre.  Alex was Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Seeing Machines, a high-technology company developing computer vision systems. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a start-up from ANU where Alex was Professor of Systems Engineering. Previously Alex researched in robotics and computer vision at the AIST Electro-technical Laboratory in Japan and has taught and conducted research in computer science at the University of Wollongong.  Alex has extensive experience in advising Federal and State governments in Australia, including as a member of the Australian Government’s Defence Industry Innovation Board. Alex is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences, Engineers Australia, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He received the Engineers Australia M A Sargent Medal 2015 – the most prestigious award made by the College of Electrical Engineers and in 2013 he was awarded the prestigious Pearcey Medal, the ICT industry’s premier prize for lifetime achievement.

Alex was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours “for distinguishing service to defence science and technology, to systems engineering, and to education as an academic and researcher.”

More People