Professor Monro is an ARC Federation Fellow, Director of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS), Professor of Photonics and the Director of the Centre of Expertise in Photonics within the School of Chemistry & Physics (CoEP) at the University of Adelaide.

Professor Monro came to the University of Adelaide in early 2005 as the inaugural Chair of Photonics. From 1998 – 2004 Tanya worked within the ORC at the University of Southampton in the UK. Tanya Monro has published over 300 papers in journals and refereed conference proceedings.

Tanya is a member of the South Australian Premier’s Science & Research Council, and regularly serves on a range of committees for the Australian Research Counil (ARC) and other key national bodies in the area of science policy and the evaluation of science. She recently served as part of a consultation panel for the recently released Defence White Paper (2009).

 Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing – IPAS

The vision of IPAS is to bring together researchers in physics, chemistry and biology to pursue a transdisciplinary approach to science for applications in defence, preventative health, environmental monitoring and food and wine. In late 2008 IPAS was awarded $29M from the Australian Federal Government HEEF (EIF) scheme towards the construction of a new building for IPAS on the University of Adelaide’s North Terrace Campus. This project also has support from the South Australian State Government and DSTO.

The CoEP focuses on developing new classes of micro and nanostructured optical fibres for defence, sensing, nonlinear optics and fibre lasers. 

 Awards and Achievements

2009     Winner, Science Category, Emerging Leaders Award (by Weekend Australian Magazine)

2008      Prime Minister’s Malcolm McIntosh Prize – Physical Scientist of the Year

2007-8  Australian Institute of Physics Women’s Lecture Tour

2007      Rising Star Award, South Australia’s “Top 50” across all fields under 35

2007      Finalist, South Australian Scientist of the Year

2006      Cosmos magazine Bright Spark Award, Australia’s “top 10 scientific minds” under 45

2000      Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UK)

1998      Bragg Gold Medal, Best physics PhD thesis in Australia