Sally L. McArthur

Sally L. McArthur is an Australian materials engineer who is a professor of biomedical engineering and incoming Deputy Vice Chancellor Research at Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand. Her research considers the development of materials and coatings for biomedical, manufacturing and environmental applications.

Early life and education McArthur was an undergraduate student in materials engineering and has a masters in biomedical engineering from Monash University. She joined CSIRO Chemicals and Polymers for graduate research, working toward a doctorate at the University of New South Wales. In 2008, she joined Swinburne University of Technology, where she focused on research-led innovation and tech translation. She also created a scalable chemical oxygen demand sensing system that can provide accurate results in fifteen minutes without the use of harmful chemicals. Her laboratory at Swinburne was home to the Australian National Fabrication Facilities, a space which provides surface engineering capabilities to researchers across academia and industry. She was awarded the BioMelbourne Network Most Valuable Women in Leadership Award in 2016.

McArthur joined the American Vacuum Society in 2000. She was appointed to the executive committee of its Division for Biomaterial Interfaces in 2005, and became its chair in 2011. She served as editor of Biointerphases between 2017-2021. She is the President Elect of the AVS in 2026.

McArthur was the director of the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University between 2022-2025.

Selected publications