Research Executive
The Research Executive leads our research strategy and supports our researchers in their vital work. It consists of the VCST Leads, A/DVCs, Graduate Research School and Research Services teams.
Professor Remco Polman 
VCST Lead, Research
Executive Dean, Institute of Health and Wellbeing
Remco’s initial training was in the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences at the 'Vrije Universiteit', Amsterdam, The Netherlands ('Doctorandus' 1992).
Following this he completed his PhD in the Psychology Department at the University of York, UK. Previously, he was the head of the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Queensland University of Technology (2017-2022), head of the Psychology Department at Bournemouth University, UK (2015-2017), program leader for active living across the lifespan at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, at Victoria University, Melbourne, (2010-2015) and Director of the Centre of Applied Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Central Lancashire, UK (2008-2010).
Remco has also held previous appointments at the University of Hull, Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of South Australia, and the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University).
Remco is a Chartered psychologist by the British Psychological Society and an accredited sport and exercise psychologist by the Health Care and Professions Council, UK. Remco's research interests are diverse and include stress, coping, and emotions in sport and exercise, the psychology of (sport) injury rehabilitation; personality and sport and exercise (Mental toughness), exercise psychology, aging, sport coaching and more recently the science of esports.
Professor Iven Mareels
VCST Lead, Innovation
Executive Dean, Institute of Innovation, Science and Sustainability
Iven is a culture champion, an experienced R&D manager and research team leader who has managed organizational units of up to 1,000 employees (counting PhD students as junior employees) and an annual budget well in excess of A$300M.
At IBM he was the Director of IBM Research in Australia, and later a partner in IBM Consulting Australia. His team focused on AI, with a particular emphasis on developing AI for the health sector.
He has worked in a consulting and research capacity with the water industry, electrical power industry and electronics industry, the defense industries as well as other research organizations. The majority of his experience was in the university sector (1977-2018,2022-ongoing).
Iven enjoys developing talent, and shaping organizational culture. He feels immensely rewarded when people reach their full potential whilst being well placed organizationally.
Iven’s personal research focuses on large scale and learning systems (from mathematical modelling to organizational management) such as computational networks, the electricity grid, water distribution networks, and the (human) brain. He has contributed over 500 publications, and more than 40 patents.
Professor Jenene Burke
VCST Lead, Learning and Teaching Quality
Executive Dean, Institute of Education, Arts and Community
Professor Jenene Burke is the (Acting) Executive Dean, in the Institute of Education, Arts and Community (IEAC). She is the Immediate Past President of the World Federation of Associations for Education (WFATE) and Board Member, representing Australia, and member of the Victorian Council of Deans of Education. Professor Burke was an Ordinary Member of the Executive of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) from 2014-2019, National Convenor of the ATEA awards and grants (2015-2019) and Victorian representative, Network of Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching in Education (NADLATE) National Executive.
As a teacher educator and sociologist, Professor Burke is best known for her world-class research into play spaces as inclusive environments for children and their families. Along with this, she has broad interest in other areas of education which intersect with disability studies in education and inclusive education, as demonstrated in her research partnerships and activities, doctoral supervisions, and publications. In addition, Professor Burke is currently leading or actively involved in several projects that aim to better understand how to attract pre-service and graduate teachers to teach in regional, rural and remote schools including Will I stay or will I go…? Rural, regional remote, the Access Quality Teaching (AQT) Program, and the Latrobe City Pathways Plus initiative. Professor Burke leads the Inclusion and Social Justice in Teacher Education in Global Contexts (ISJTE) research development group for the World Federation of Associations for Teacher Education (WFATE). More recently, in a leadership collaboration with Assoc Prof Marcelle Cacciattolo from Victoria University, the Equity, Inclusion and Agency (EIA) group was formed as a research support group.
Professor Shane Thomas
A/DVC, Research and Innovation
Shane Thomas is Professor of Health Promotion and Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at Federation. He won a PhD in Psychology and Diploma of Public Policy from Melbourne University and PLD from Harvard Business School.
Professor Thomas has held senior professorships at Australia’s leading Group of 8 and top 100 global universities including Monash, Sydney and Adelaide and Honorary Professorships at Australian National University, University of Melbourne, Peking University and as a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash. His senior leadership roles have included Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of International at Adelaide, Deputy Dean in Medicine at Monash and Director of the International Primary Health Care Research Institute in China and external academic visitor in Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently working with the UK NHS and Cambridge in behavioural addiction research.
He has made major contributions to chronic disease and addiction research and treatment. His NHMRC clinical guideline has inspired gambling addiction treatment and research globally. In chronic illness his work has fostered treatment and research programs in China, UK and Australia. He won the Chinese government’s health innovations award for the Happy Life Club program, the Australian Psychological Society President’s Award and has received commendations from the UAE, Saudi, Chinese and Australian governments.
Shane has 300 refereed publications and 4 books. His book on Health Research, now in its 8th edition, has settings globally and is held in 600 academic libraries. He has won 14 ARC grants and 8 NHMRC grants and a further 16 major grants from Australian and International grant agencies.
Professor Syed Islam
A/DVC, Research and Innovation (Strategic Research)
Details to follow
Dr Mark Potter
Director, Research and Innovation
Mark has led both Research and Graduate Research support teams at UTAS, Monash University and the University of Melbourne.
Mark was most recently Manager of Research and Partnerships in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, at Melbourne where his team managed a doubling of annual research income.
Mark brings a wide range of management skills to the University including, implementation of research management systems, the streamlining of online processes, the development of robust research policies, guidelines, and procedures, the effective use of researcher performance data to enhance researcher development and in industry engagement.
Mark is genuinely committed to first in family education, ECR development, diversity and inclusion and relationship development with Indigenous communities.
Professor Wendy Wright 
Dean, Graduate Research
Professor Wendy Wright is Dean of the Graduate Research School at Federation University Australia.
Wendy’s research is focussed at the intersection between human populations, modified landscapes, wildlife and wild places; and is informing the development of evidence-based environmental management policy in Australia and internationally. She has worked in collaboration with the Victorian State Government to understand the effects of fire and harvesting on wildlife in public forests.
Other work in Australia is focused on the effects of past and present ecological disturbances on species of interest (i.e. rare, threatened species, important populations or invasive species) including Strzelecki Gum, Sallow Wattle, Koala and Sambar Deer. International collaborations include projects in China (investigating the biodiversity value of reconstructed forests in Sichuan Province), Indonesia (the role of Rattan agroforestry in biodiversity conservation) and Nepal (the role of women in Nepalese forestry governance, addressing human-tiger conflict in subsistence farming communities and contributing to training of wildlife guides in Bardia and Chitwan National Parks).
An interest in local and traditional ecological knowledge has led to collaborations with historians and sociologists and to projects which examine the historical use of fire in ecosystem management by Indigenous Australians in Victoria; and the role of traditional ecological knowledge in managing protected areas in the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in China. Important themes in Wendy’s research include: Wildlife conservation; disturbance ecology, conservation in highly modified environments and ecological anthropology.
Professor Andrew Barton
Deputy Dean, Graduate Research
Professor Andrew Barton is Deputy Dean, Graduate Research and the Discipline Leader (Science and Engineering), providing overall academic leadership for the geoscience, mathematics, and various engineering discipline areas.
As head of the science and engineering disciplines, Andrew is also a member of the School’s executive team.
Andrew’s other substantive position is as a Professor in Water Engineering. Andrew received his PhD from the University of Tasmania in the area of experimental fluid mechanics (near wall flows and surface roughness) and civil engineering hydraulics (hydropower systems). He also holds an MEngSc by research from Monash University where he worked on fishway hydraulics and numerical modeling techniques. He has since worked for over ten years in both the water industry and academia in senior engineering, lecturing, and management roles developing a national and international profile in water resources engineering and hydraulics.
Get in touch with our Research Services or Graduate Research School teams
Research Services
Contact the Research Services Team.
Graduate Research School
Contact the Graduate Research School.