Professor Penny Martens

Professor Penny Martens is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Higher Degree by Research) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she provides strategic and academic leadership for the University’s Higher Degree by Research (HDR) portfolio. She oversees HDR policy, governance, admissions, scholarships, candidature management, supervisor capability, and researcher development, working closely with Faculties and central divisions to strengthen the quality, integrity, and experience of HDR training across UTS.

Penny brings over two decades of experience in HDR leadership and graduate research strategy. Prior to joining UTS, she served as Deputy Dean of Graduate Research at UNSW, where she led major initiatives to enhance HDR candidate development, supervision quality, and research culture across seven Faculties. Her leadership has consistently focused on building institution‑wide coherence in research training while recognising the diverse disciplinary contexts in which HDR candidates and supervisors operate.

An internationally trained chemical engineer, Penny received her PhD from the University of Colorado in 2002 before joining UNSW in 2003. As a Professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, her research has centred on polymer synthesis and characterisation, with a particular focus on the rational design of complex biomedical polymer systems.