Adjunct Professor
Matthew Bellgard

Biography

Adjunct Professor Bellgard was the inaugural eResearch Director (2018-2023) at Queensland University of Technology. He lead QUT's eResearch Office, which works closely and often with researchers and external end-users to understand the research question, the breadth of technical and socio-technical challenges in order to devise innovative strategies to ultimately ensure technological solutions are fit-for-purpose and best-of-breed. Professor Bellgard has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Western Australia (1994) specialising in Artificial Intelligence. To date, Professor Bellgard has personally attracted over $45m in research funding, co-inventor of 5 full/20 provisional patents, designed and commissioned a world’s top 100 supercomputer, co-authored over 152 peer reviewed articles in areas including human/animal/plant genomics, bioinformatics, health informatics, AI, biosecurity, eResearch, HASS, remote sensing and radio astronomy. He has led the design and development of digital health solutions for government, industry and academia, addressing policy, privacy, consent issues across multiple jurisdictions.

Professor Bellgard is a Board member of the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum Executive Board and Chair of the APEC LSIF Rare Disease Network. He was invited to present this work at the Rare Disease Day Policy Event at the United Nations in February 2019. Previously, Professor Bellgard was the Director of the Centre for Comparative Genomics, a Western Australian State Government Centre of Excellence for over 12 years at Murdoch University. The CCG undertakes research in the biomedical and agricultural sciences on themes as diverse as human health, personalised medicine, animal and plant genomics and pathogens and viruses. As CCG Director, he was responsible for the expansion of the Centre into the fields of rare disease and molecular therapy, pioneering research on innovative rare disease registries development and novel therapies for muscular dystrophy. Professor Matt Bellgard was also Director of iVEC@Murdoch, a facility that housed the second largest computer in Australia, ranked 87thin the world in 2011. Matthew was also Project Director of the NeCTAR National Research Cloud in Western Australia (2014-2015). Achievements include:

• 2018- Director, QCIF Board
• 2018- Board member, Executive Board, APEC Life Science Innovation Forum
• 2017- Chair of the APEC LSIF Rare Disease Network
• 2017  Dennis Moore Distinguished Oration - Australian Computer Society (WA)
• 2014  Senior Researcher Award, An Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Ticks and Tick-borne Pathogens (Conference for Ticks and Tick-borne Pathogens)
• 2012  OECD Co-operative Research Program Fellowship Award, Santa Fe, NM, USA
• 2006  Top 40 Business Leaders under 40 years of age
• 1998-99   Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan
• 1995  Young Australian of the Year, Science & Technology Category Winner (WA)