Vice-Chancellor and President
Deakin University
Professor John Rosenberg, PhD (Computer Science) (Monash), BSc (First Class Honours) (Computer Science), Monash, FTSE, FACS, MIEAust , FAICD
Professor John Rosenberg commenced as Deakin's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) on 1 September 2003. In January 2006 he was also given responsibility for the internationalisation portfolio at Deakin, a role he undertook until March 2008.
Professor Rosenberg has overall responsibility for driving an agenda of excellence in relation to teaching and learning at Deakin and for academic staff development, including the promotion process. He also works closely with the Deans and the Faculties to ensure that each Faculty's portfolio of courses is relevant and responsive to the needs of the industry and students. His portfolio includes responsibility for:
Prior to taking up this role, he was Dean of Monash University's Faculty of Information Technology, a position he had held since 1997.
Professor Rosenberg first joined the staff of Monash University as a Full-time Senior Tutor in 1978 and went on to become a Senior Lecturer prior to moving to the University of Newcastle. Following a period as Senior Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Computational Science at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, Professor Rosenberg returned to the University of Newcastle as Associate Professor and Head of the Discipline of Computer Science. Before commencing his Deanship at Monash, Professor Rosenberg spent a period of six years at the University of Sydney as Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Basser Department of Computer Science.
In addition to his life in academia, Professor Rosenberg has engaged in consultancies in the industrial and government sectors, and was involved in many successful joint business activities undertaken by Monash University, one of the most significant being the establishment of a joint venture with the International Olympic Committee which had overall responsibility for knowledge management for the IOC.
Professor Rosenberg is a distinguished academic with an innovative approach to teaching who has designed and presented courses at all levels of undergraduate degree programs. One result of his commitment to innovative teaching was his part in the co-design of BlueJ, a Java development environment specifically designed for teaching. BlueJ is in use in over 1,000 universities world-wide. It was this project which led to his inclusion as a Computerworld Smithsonian Institute Honours Program Laureate in 2001. Work has continued on the project in conjunction with the University of Kent, U.K. and has resulted in the development of Greenfoot which is aimed at teaching Java to secondary school students.
Professor Rosenberg has published widely in both journals and conferences. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Australian Computer Society.
Professor Rosenberg has been extremely active in government committees and working parties as well as in the community. In 1996, he was Deputy Chair of the Australian Research Council working party established to examine the discipline of information technology.
Later, he was selected to serve as a member of the Victorian Government's IT Skills Taskforce and subsequently appointed to Chair that Taskforce's Core ICT Skills Subcommittee. In 2002, he was invited to participate in the Federal government's working party on the Framework for the Future. He is a member of advisory panels for both the Victorian and federal government ministers responsible for information technology.
