Joanna Batstone is the inaugural Director of the Monash Data Futures Institute and is responsible for bringing together data science and AI capabilities from across the University. Joanna will continue to establish a digital ecosystem which fosters collaborative interdisciplinary research and promotes lasting industry engagements.

An exceptional thought leader in the development and application of AI and data analytics, Joanna is passionate about the benefits of AI in driving lasting and transformative change for social good.

Joanna joins Monash from IBM, where she was recently Vice President, Innovation, IBM Corporate Strategy based in New York. Joanna held a variety of technical and business leadership roles in IBM’s Research and Development Laboratories, including work with IBM Watson Data & AI. Joanna is an experienced technology executive with international experience managing teams in the USA, Europe and Australia. From 2014-2017, Joanna was Vice President and Lab Director, IBM Research – Australia and Chief Technology Officer, IBM Australia and New Zealand. Joanna joined IBM in the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, in the Physical Sciences department.

Joanna received a B.Sc., in Chemical Physics and a Ph.D., in Physics from The University of Bristol, UK, followed by postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Laboratories, NJ, and a Lectureship in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Liverpool, UK, before joining IBM. She received the Burton Medal from the Microscopy Society of America, the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society and the Cosslett Award from the Microbeam Analysis Society.