Torrens University Australia has appointed Professor Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), bringing one of Australia’s senior research and research training leaders into the university’s executive team.
Georgiou-Karistianis joins Torrens from Monash University, where she most recently served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Training) and Professor of Psychology.
At Monash, she led Australia’s largest higher degree research enterprise, overseeing more than 5,600 doctoral candidates across the university’s global campuses and a scholarship portfolio worth more than $113 million.
For Torrens, the appointment comes as the university seeks to strengthen its research capability, industry engagement and international partnerships.
It also points to an increasingly important question for the private university sector: how to build research capacity and reputation at a time when research is becoming an increasingly visible part of institutional positioning, international partnerships and industry engagement.
Torrens Vice-Chancellor and CEO Professor Aleks Subic said Georgiou-Karistianis would bring a combination of executive leadership, academic expertise and experience in delivering research impact at scale.
“Her experience leading large-scale research ecosystems, driving research excellence, building strong industry and international partnerships and her proven experience in researcher development will be invaluable as Torrens University enters its next phase of growth and research development,” Subic said.
Georgiou-Karistianis previously held several senior leadership positions at Monash, including Deputy Dean (Academic and Graduate Affairs) in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and Associate Dean (Graduate Research).
Across those roles, she led research performance initiatives, academic workforce development, research governance and graduate research strategy, with Torrens highlighting improvements in research training outcomes and supervisory capability.
Georgiou-Karistianis said she was joining Torrens at a time of “significant opportunity” for the sector.
“Torrens University is building a strong reputation for innovation, industry connection and student success,” she said.
“I am excited by the opportunity to work with colleagues across the University to further strengthen research excellence, expand strategic partnerships and support research that addresses complex challenges and delivers tangible benefits for communities, industry and society.”
Her own research credentials are substantial.
She has published more than 240 peer-reviewed papers, attracted more than $16 million in competitive research funding and has an h-index of 61, with more than 12,000 citations.
Her expertise spans research strategy and governance, research performance, research training, industry engagement and international collaboration, as well as the application of artificial intelligence in research and researcher development.
The latter is likely to become an increasingly relevant part of the research leadership agenda, as universities work through both the opportunities and disruption created by AI across research, researcher training and academic practice.
The appointment also comes at an interesting point in Torrens’ development. The university has built its proposition around industry connection, employability and international reach. Strengthening research adds another dimension to that model, particularly if research partnerships can translate into tangible outcomes for industry and communities.
In other words, this is not simply a senior academic appointment. For Torrens, it is a statement about where it wants its research operation to go next.
Professor Georgiou-Karistianis will commence as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) on 1 December.
