Peter Taylor
Directorate
Interim Director
Peter Taylor received a BSc(Hons) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide in 1980 and 1987 respectively. In between, he spent time working for the Australian Public Service in Canberra. After periods at the Universities of Western Australia and Adelaide, he moved at the beginning of 2002 to the University of Melbourne. In January 2003, he took up a position as the inaugural Professor of Operations Research. He was Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 2005 until 2010.
Peter’s research interests lie in the fields of stochastic modelling and applied probability, with particular emphasis on applications in telecommunications, biological modelling, healthcare, economics and disaster management. Recently he has become interested in the interaction of stochastic modelling with optimisation and optimal control under conditions of uncertainty. He is regularly invited to present plenary papers at international conferences. He has also acted on organising and program committees for many conferences.
Peter is the Editor-in-Chief of the Applied Probability Trust journals Journal of Applied Probability and Advances in Applied Probability and was the Editor-in-Chief of Stochastic Models between 2002 and 2018. He is also a member of the editorial board of Queueing Systems. He served on the Awards Committee of the Applied Probability Section of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) from 2005-2007 and in 2016 was Co-Chair of the Committee for the Nicholson Prize, awarded for the best student paper in operations research.
From 2006 to 2008, Peter was Chair of the Australia and New Zealand Division of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ANZIAM), and from 2010 to 2012 he was the President of the Australian Mathematical Society. In 2013 he was awarded a Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council, and in 2016 he became Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers(ACEMS). In 2017, he was awarded the Ren Potts Medal by the Australian Society for Operations Research and in 2018 the George Szekeres Medal by the Australian Mathematical Society and in 2019 the ANZIAM Medal by the Australian and New Zealand Division of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. All three medals are for career achievement. In 2023, he was elected to the Australian Academy of Science.
Matthew Simpson
Directorate
Deputy Director (Translation)
Professor Matthew Simpson is an internationally recognised leader in mathematical biology, and he holds position as Professor of applied mathematics and Queensland University of Technology.
Professor Simpson’s research experience in mathematical biology has led to more than 200 journal articles covering both theoretical and practical aspects of mathematical biology. This research includes the development of new mathematical theory and methodologies, as well as deploying these theoretical tools to interrogate and understand various biological phenomena, often focusing on population-level biological systems ranging from development to tissue repair phenomena.
As Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Professor Simpson leads the main publication associated with the international Society for Mathematical Biology, and he is Deputy Chair of ANZIAM, which is a Division of the Australian Mathematical Society whose members are interested in applied mathematics, research in applied mathematics and tertiary mathematics education.
Traude Beilharz
Directorate
Deputy Director (Operations)
Professor Traude Beilharz is an RNA biologist and biochemist with interests that span the birth, life and death of RNA in cells as they adapt to change. MACSYS combines her love of collaboration, data-driven research and the cell biology of Baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Traude believes that the skills learned and the tools built in pursuit of whole-cell models will enable a new academic discipline -Predictive Biology- and create career paths toward research and entrepreneurship in digital biology.
As Deputy Director (Operations), Traude enables excellence by supporting the thriving of the Centre’s diversity. She applies her mindset and leadership coaching qualifications to support MACSYS people so that each feels safe to bring their ideas, creativity and ambition -knowing that this looks different in each of us and that the Centre’s success depends on it.
Adelle Coster
Directorate
Deputy Director (Research)
Professor Adelle Coster is a Professor in Applied Mathematics with long-standing research collaborations both nationally and internationally with leading medical research institutes and universities.
Professor Coster has previously served on the Academic Board of UNSW Sydney for a decade (2004-14) and subsequently as Deputy Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics (2019-20). Since 2020 Professor Coster has served as Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW Sydney. She is also a Past-President of the Australian Society for Biophysics and an editor of Mathematical Biosciences (Elsevier).
Professor Coster uses dynamical systems, stochastic modelling, and queueing theory to develop mathematical models and solutions to real world problems – largely in the areas of medicine and biology. She uses hypothesis and data-driven approaches to build quantitative mathematical models of the processes driving change in the systems under investigation. The models are then systematically analysed, perturbed, optimised and refined to best represent the known characteristics of the system. She draws on her biophysical knowledge of the specific biology and experimental techniques to ensure that the mathematical models are indeed biologically realistic, rather than simply biologically inspired.