Joan Cooper
Professor of Technology
University of Wollongong

Professor Joan Cooper is Dean of Informatics. Prior to this was Head of the School of Information Technology and Computer Science (1997-2001), Head of Information and Communication Technology (1991-1997) and has over twenty years experience within the Information Technology field. Joan has been Deputy Chair of Senate from July 1996 and Chair of University Senate from July 2000 until her appointment as Dean of Informatics in May 2001.

She was the foundation Professor of Information Technology at theUniversity of Wollongong and the first female professor of IT in Australia.. She is also the Co-ordinator of the Centre for Electronic Business Research. Her most recent work is in Electronic Commerce and Health Informatics.

She is a member of the NSW Privacy Advisory Committee, established as part of the NSW Government's Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. She is one of the three founders of Australia's first inter-University Electronic Commerce research and consulting group CollECTeR (Collaborative Electronic Commerce Technology and Research). She is the National Deputy Chair of Women in Technology - a special interest group of ACS.

She is not just a 'technocrat', an important feature of her profile, is her distinctive background in pure and social sciences. While coming from an area of technical and scientific research, she has had extensive experience in, and developed a thorough knowledge of the research methodology of the social sciences. She has researched, taught and consulted in both technical and theoretical areas and also in areas which are more managerial and policy oriented. This unusual aspect of her experience helps her to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical practitioners in industry.

Contact details

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Email:  joan_cooper@uow.edu.au
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