Professor Julie Cairney

Professor Julie Cairney is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Enterprise) at the University of Sydney, where she supports strategies to enhance industry collaboration, improve research commercialisation and increase the impact of the University’s research through partnership with industry, government and the community. A Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, she serves on the boards of Cicada Innovations, Uniseed, and various University spin-offs. From 2016-2022 she was the CEO of Microscopy Australia, a national infrastructure facility that provides open-access microscopy platforms and expertise across Australia.

A Professor of Materials Engineering, she is also a leading researcher specialising in using advanced microscopy to study the three-dimensional structure of materials at the atomic scale. Her work is published in the top international journals, including Science and the Nature series. She is also a passionate contributor to the broader scientific community and was selected as one the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 50 Young Scientists of 2016.