Tanya Monro

Tanya Mary Monro (born 1973) is an Australian physicist known for her work in photonics. She has been Australia's Chief Defence Scientist since 8 March 2019. Prior to that she was the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation (DVCR&I) at the University of South Australia. She was awarded the ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2013. She was the inaugural director of the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS) the South Australian Economic Development Board, and the Defence SA board.

Education Monro was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with first class honours in 1995 followed by a PhD in 1998 from the University of Sydney for research on waveguides. Monro credits a teacher at Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar with inspiring her interest in physics.

Career and research From 1998 to 2004, Monro was a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton. and the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Nanoscale Biophotonics at the University of Adelaide. From 2014 to 2019 she was the Deputy Vice Chancellor and Vice President, Research and Innovation at the University of South Australia.

Chief Defence Scientist (2019–present)

Monro was announced as Australia's next Chief Defence Scientist on 24 January 2019. Monro took up the role of Chief Defence Scientist in March 2019, the first woman in this position. In this role she heads the Defence Science and Technology Group and serves as Defence's Capability Manager for Innovation, Science and Technology.

During her tenure Defence released and implemented the mission-directed S&T framework known as More, together: Defence Science and Technology Strategy 2030, which established the Science, Technology and Research (STaR) Shots to focus effort on leap-ahead capabilities, including Remote Undersea Surveillance and Quantum-Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT).

Publications Monro has published a few book chapters, and is named on 275 papers (Monro is first and/or sole author in only 40 of these papers) including refereed journal articles and conference papers. These have led to over 21000 citations in journals and refereed conference proceedings. Monro has also registered a number of patent families. Although, not a single one of these patent families have resulted in any commercial applications or uses - this is very typical of blue sky researchers.

Honours and awards 1998 The Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics for the best PhD thesis by a student from an Australian university 2006 Bright Spark Award (for Australia's Top 10 Scientific Minds under 45 – Cosmos Magazine) 2015 Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research 2019 South Australian award winner of The Australian Awards for Excellence in Women's Leadership. 2020 Awarded the title of Emeritus Professor at the University of South Australia. 2022 Appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "eminent service to scientific and technological development, to research and innovation, to tertiary education, particularly in the field of photonics, and to professional organisations".

Professional associations Fellow, Optical Society of America (FOSA) Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA) Bragg Fellow, RI Aus (Royal Institution Australia)

Personal life Monro was raised in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown. She is an alumna of the National Youth Science Forum, a youth camp at the Australian National University students wishing to pursue a career in science. She married David in 1995. They moved to England in 1998. They have three sons, the first born in 2003, followed by twin boys born in 2006. Monro is a science fiction fan, and played cello in the Burnside Symphony Orchestra in Adelaide.