Rebekah Brown

Rebekah Ruth Brown is an Australian academic who is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and served as interim vice-chancellor and president of the Australian National University since September 2025. Her research specializes in urban water management, sustainable development, and transdisciplinary methods.

Education Brown holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree with honors from Monash University.

Brown worked as a civil engineer on infrastructure projects across the United Kingdom, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

Brown co-founded the water-sensitive cities research platform at Monash University. She was involved in establishing the $120 million (AUD) Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, comprising 86 partner organizations and over 170 researchers. In this role, she served as Chief Research Officer and inaugural Society-themed Program Leader, overseeing research outcomes from more than 100 researchers and 40 doctoral students across multiple institutions and 20 disciplines.

Brown's research has been cited in UN-Habitat's formulation of policy on urban drainage (2014–2017), in a UNESCO analysis of 33 cities (2012), and by the Asian Development Bank in framing water infrastructure investment strategies. Following the resignation of Genevieve Bell in September 2025, Brown was appointed interim Vice-Chancellor and President of ANU. She has committed to serving in this role until at least the end of 2026. She outlined three key objectives: creating stability, rebuilding trust, and developing a new strategic direction for the university. Brown served simultaneously as both provost and interim vice-chancellor during this period, with no separate interim provost appointed.

Research and publications Brown has published over 220 papers in journals, including Nature, Science, Global Environmental Change, and Water Research. Her work has an h-index of 50 and more than 12,800 citations.

Personal life Brown was the first person in her family to attend university. She studied engineering as one of only three women in her undergraduate cohort.