Academia / The Pracademic Advantage
Turning ideas into university-wide impact.
I build the executive support, industry partnerships and learning opportunities that turn an initial idea into a university-wide initiative.
I am a pracademic: an academic by training and an industry practitioner by experience. My work brings people, research and industry together to deliver outcomes beyond the classroom and the laboratory.
Applied research leadership | Industry-embedded learning
Australia-Germany partnerships
Selected La Trobe achievements · Historical program outcomes
Figures reflect historical program outcomes. DESIS impact is distinct from contract value; the WIL figure records host-company employment offers, not a guarantee of employment.
University-wide strategic leadership
From an idea to executive commitment.
My contribution is to recognise an opportunity, initiate it within a department, and build the support needed to carry it through the school and college to the university's senior executive.
At La Trobe, I initiated and led the German Aerospace Centre and Bendigo Fraunhofer partnerships. Both were recognised as strategically important to the university as a whole, attracting direct reporting to the Pro Vice-Chancellor and university cash and in-kind support.
I brought together research capability, executive sponsorship, industry partners and government engagement so that these became more than individual projects: they became institutionally supported initiatives.
- 01Identify the opportunityA concept with practical purpose.
- 02Department & schoolConnect people and research capability.
- 03College leadershipBuild the strategic case and support.
- 04University executiveSecure sponsorship and commitment.
- 05Partnership & deliveryTurn backing into sustained outcomes.
Two flagship examples
International partnerships.
Institutional outcomes.
01 / German Aerospace Centre
From university capability to the International Space Station.
- Initiate
- Within six months of joining La Trobe, I drew on an established DLR relationship to secure mission-critical engineering work for the DESIS space instrument.
- Lead and deliver
- I led the university program from initiation to delivery. La Trobe's engineering contribution became part of the DESIS instrument deployed to the International Space Station in 2018.
- Build strategic reach
- The mission's success generated a reported $5 million in impact for La Trobe University, with engagement extending to the university executive and Victorian Government. I subsequently represented the university in discussions with the office of Victoria's Lead Scientist and the DLR executive.
02 / Bendigo Fraunhofer initiative
From a departmental idea to regional capability.
- Initiate and align
- In 2015, I initiated the Bendigo Fraunhofer initiative and brought together university executives, regional manufacturers, local government, Fraunhofer and the Victorian Government around a shared ambition for digital transformation.
- Build support and capability
- The initiative developed into the Central Victorian Advanced Manufacturing alliance. It later attracted $2 million from the Strategic University Reform Fund and $1 million in state funding, supporting the Regional Advanced Manufacturing Hub 4.0.
- Extend the impact
- Fraunhofer staff worked in the region during the funded program. The pilot and its shared learning informed TILT and the national ambition now presented through Tech Translate Australia.
These are collaborative achievements: my role was to initiate, align and lead, working with university teams and external partners. Tech Translate Australia is presented here as a national initiative and ambition, not an already funded and operating national institute network.
Teaching excellence / Work-integrated learning
A program built from scratch.
A pathway into professional life.
I led the design, development, implementation, review and ongoing improvement of La Trobe's award-winning Engineering Work Integrated Learning program.
The purpose was to make industry experience an integral part of becoming an engineer. Students applied their knowledge to real projects, developed professional judgement and built relationships with future employers. During the program's development, 90-95% were offered employment by their placement host.
For me, teaching excellence means creating the conditions in which students can demonstrate what they know, discover what they can contribute and grow into professional responsibility.
Achieved with zero additional resourcing.
Global Research and Industry Program / GRIP
Global experience.
Before graduation.
I established GRIP to place Australian students and staff within international industry and research organisations. Students undertook 12-month placements, primarily with German partners, through thesis work or full-time internships.
One of the greatest satisfactions of my academic career has been handpicking talented Australian students, opening these doors and seeing them excel. Every student I placed through the program met or exceeded the expectations of their host.
These placements developed more than individual careers. Embedding students and staff within partner organisations also helped build long-term industry research relationships for the university, bringing experience, networks and capability back to Australia.
- DLR
- Fraunhofer
- Audi
- fortiss
- BMW Research & Innovation
My conviction / The pracademic advantage
The future university needs pracademics.
I believe the future of academia will depend increasingly on academics who bring substantial industry experience and act as facilitators: opening networks, shaping opportunities and enabling students and researchers to work within industry.
Alongside traditional academic expertise, students need access to people who understand professional practice because they have lived it. Researchers need those connections too, to understand industrial needs and follow their work towards application.
Students repeatedly told me they felt they had learnt more in their first two or three months on placement than in their previous three years at university. I see that as a powerful reminder of what happens when academic foundations meet real responsibility.
Bring industry into university.
Make industry problems, expertise and expectations part of education and applied research.
Embed people in practice.
Give students and researchers meaningful roles within working industry teams.
Build lasting partnerships.
Turn individual opportunities into enduring education, research and translation relationships.
The experience behind my approach
Academic foundations.
Industry experience. University leadership.
Research into enterprise
Engineering studies and doctoral research in optics led to commercialisation through Photonics Consulting and VPIphotonics, where I also established a global university research-partner program.
International industry
Working overseas, including engineering group leadership at BMW in Munich, gave me direct experience of multinational teams, industrial expectations and technology delivery.
A purposeful return
At RMIT, I worked across research and innovation, international development and industry experience. At La Trobe, I built WIL, GRIP and the DLR and Fraunhofer initiatives.
Extending the reach
At Swinburne, I continued developing the DLR and Fraunhofer initiatives and their national reach, carrying the partnerships beyond a single institution.
Academic foundations: Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Honours; dux of the course) · PhD in Electronic Engineering (Optics).
Work with me
Build the next university-wide initiative.
I work with university leaders, industry, research institutes and government to turn promising ideas into strategically supported partnerships, applied-research programs and industry-embedded learning.