Professor Michael A. McRobbie AO
ANU allowed my research career to blossom in my years there and allowed me to develop skills in administration, entrepreneurship and global engagement with colleagues and mentors that have served me extremely well in my career in the US.
During the past four decades, Professor Michael McRobbie has developed an international reputation as an information technology innovator and a global leader in higher education. From Canberra to the US, Michael has been at the forefront of a changing education sector, embracing technologies and revitalising tertiary institutions along his way.
Michael became the 18th president of Indiana University on 1 July 2007. It is one of the largest university systems in the US with eight campuses, a budget of around US$3 billion and more than 7,000 faculty, 11,000 staff and nearly 115,000 students.
Michael has been at Indiana University since 1997 and held a number of positions, including Professor of Computer Science, Vice-President for Research, and Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs at the University's Bloomington campus. Under his leadership, the University has expanded the size and quality of its student body and it has undergone a large-scale academic restructuring with the establishment of six new schools.
There has been a reinvigoration of the global partnerships that support the University's international academic and educational programs and the completion of a $1.1 billion endowment campaign at the Bloomington campus, and a $1.39 billion campaign at its Indianapolis campus.
Michael attributes the success he has had in the US in part to his career at ANU. He completed his PhD in Philosophy at the ANU Research School of Social Sciences in 1979 and held post-doctoral positions before returning to ANU as a research fellow, reader and then professor from 1990 to 1996. He was also Head and Director of the Automated Reasoning Project and Executive Director of the Centre for Information Science Research.
Among many roles at ANU, Michael served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the CRC for Advanced Computational Systems, as the principal computer consultant for ANUTECH (now ANU Enterprise) and as coordinator for the ANU/Fujitsu Joint Collaborative Research and Development Agreement.
Michael has maintained continuing links with ANU and in 2009 signed an agreement with the then ANU Vice-Chancellor Ian Chubb to create the jointly-operated Pan Asia Institute. In March 2014, the ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences entered into a sub-agreement with Indiana University (IU) to further develop the relationship recognised under the Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation between IU and ANU for annual short term exchange of academic staff over three years.
He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from ANU in 2010, one of five he holds.
