Tanya Monro


Professor Tanya Mary Monro FAA FTSE FOSA FAIP GAICD is an Australian physicist known for her work in photonics. She has been Australia's Chief Defence Scientist since 8 March 2019. Prior to that she was the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia. She was awarded the ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2013. She was the inaugural chair of photonics, the inaugural director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics and the inaugural director of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing, and the inaugural director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics within the School of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Adelaide. Monro has remained an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Adelaide following her departure from the institution.
External roles include membership of the Australian Prime Minister's Commonwealth Science Council, the Board of the CSIRO, the South Australian Economic Development Board in which she chairs the Arts subcommittee, and the Defence SA board.
Monro took up the role of Chief Defence Scientist in March 2019, the first woman in this position.

Education

Monro was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honours in 1995 followed by a PhD in 1998 from the University of Sydney for research on waveguides. Monro credits a teacher at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar with inspiring her interest in physics.

Career and research

From 1998 to 2004, Monro was a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. She joined the University of Adelaide in 2005 as inaugural chair of photonics and Director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics within the School of Chemistry & Physics in partnership with DSTO and the SA State Government. Since that time and while at the University of Adelaide she has been: ARC Federation Fellow; Director of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing and the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics at the University of Adelaide. Since 2014 she has been the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice President, Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia.

Publications

Monro has published over 4 book chapters, and 600 papers including refereed journal articles and conference papers. These have led to over 13000 citations in journals and refereed conference proceedings. Monro has also registered 18 patent families.

Honours and awards

Monro was raised in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown. She is an alumna of the National Youth Science Forum, a selective youth camp at the Australian National University for potential leaders in science. She married David in 1995. They moved to England in 1998. They have three sons, their first born in 2003, followed by twin boys born in 2006. Monro is a science fiction fan, and plays cello in the Burnside Symphony Orchestra.