McKenzie Chair

Establishing a new intellectual agenda

The Australian National University (ANU) College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics is embarking on an ambitious agenda to reimagine engineering and computing to launch our society into the middle of the 21st Century. We are bringing non-traditional skills to engineering and computing to put people in the centre of delivering solutions to global challenges.

The Florence McKenzie Chair is part of this agenda and is proudly named in honour of Florence Violet McKenzie (née Wallace), Australia’s first female electrical engineer. Florence McKenzie exemplifies the pioneering spirit and lifelong pursuit of inclusive use of technology in society this Chair represents, and we proudly acknowledge and celebrate Florence Violet McKenzie and her legacy.

Through the establishment of this Chair, we begin the task of redefining what it means to exist in a technologically driven world and how to drive fit-for-purpose technological development.

Inaugural McKenzie Chairholder

Professor Genevieve Bell

Professor Genevieve Bell is a cultural anthropologist and a recognised world leader in the ethnographic approach to the development, shaping and use of technology. Prof Bell joined the ANU in February 2017, from global innovation company Intel, where she served as a Vice President and was the first woman in the company’s history to be appointed an Intel Senior Fellow.

The significant appointment of Prof Bell is a critical step in setting new educational ambitions and goals, establishing new creative research directions, and having direct policy and economic impact. We are critically positioned at the vanguard of redefining the professions of “engineer”, “technologist” and “computing professional” and creating a new frontier of engineering and computing to drive discovery and change in the world.

Wallace Fellows

Recruiting for the Future

The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science will appoint rising stars known as “Wallace Fellows”, the best and brightest minds recruited to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.

This is an exceptional opportunity for brilliant thinkers, selected from non-traditional streams or careers, to bring diverse and unconventional skills to academia. We are seeking passionate and mission driven individuals who can demonstrate innovative and creative approaches to complex problems.

To support the Wallace Fellowship Program and play a significant founding role in the next generation of engineering and technology contact us.