We are delighted to announce that Professor Gary Froyland has been awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship.

The Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Laureate Fellowship scheme reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to excellence in research by supporting world-class Australian and international researchers to conduct research in Australia and to build Australia’s research capacity, undertake innovative research programs and mentor early career researchers. 

Up to 17 five-year Fellowships are awarded nationally each year, covering all discipline areas. Professor Froyland received one of only two Fellowships awarded to UNSW researchers in this year's round.

Professor Froyland joins Emeritus Professor Trevor McDougall and Scientia Professor Fedor Sukochev as three School members who have been awarded ARC Laureate Fellowships.

Professor Froyland is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Mathematical Society, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Last year, he took up an Einstein Visiting Fellowship at Freie Universität Berlin.

His ARC Laureate Fellowship is for his project, "Breakthrough Mathematics for Dynamical Systems and Data". Professor Froyland aims to create a step change in the mathematics used to learn actionable information from dynamical systems and dynamical data. Using a ground-breaking, operator-theoretic approach to analyse high dimensional systems and spatiotemporal data, the project expects to generate new knowledge in the modelling of complex systems and new pathways for unsupervised machine learning. By developing new mathematical tools and practical algorithms, the project will facilitate a better way to discover hidden patterns in complex spatiotemporal data, providing social and economic benefits by improving the characterisation and prediction of key Australian climate drivers, which are connected to droughts, heatwaves, bushfires and major flooding. Professor Froyland’s research will also shed new light on social processes such as opinion spreading and the formation of consensus.

“I am humbled to receive this Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, and greatly appreciative of this investment in fundamental science,” said Professor Froyland. “I am looking forward to creating an amazing team of young researchers, and working with them toward the goals of the Fellowship program to deliver universal fundamental advances, as well as real impacts in weather, climate and social dynamics.”

Professor Nicholas Fisk, UNSW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise), congratulated Professor Froyland on his grant success. “This project will generate new knowledge in modelling complex systems and new pathways for unsupervised machine learning. Outcomes will include a tranche of new mathematics and next-generation algorithms to discover hidden human-understandable patterns in complex data sets. Gary’s research will benefit many areas of science,” he said.

ARC Chief Executive Officer, Ms Judi Zielke PSM, said that the Australian Laureate Fellowship scheme is fundamental to providing an excellent research training environment, exemplary mentorship to nurture early-career researchers, and conducting research for the benefit of the Australian and international communities.

Professor Froyland's election as an ARC Laureate Fellow followed a rigorous selection process undertaken by the ARC Selection Advisory Committee.  

We warmly congratulate Professor Froyland for this outstanding achievement.