Core expertise
Program Analysis and Transformation
Constraint Programming
Combinatorial Optimisation
Problem Modelling and Solving
Bioinformatics
Women in STEM
Biography
Maria has an outstanding international reputation as a researcher in the areas of logic programming, constraint programming, program analysis and transformation, and bioinformatics. She moved from Spain, where she earned an award-winning PhD in 1994, to Australia, first at Melbourne University and then Monash. A Logan Fellowship in 1997 enabled her to continue her research into a new constraint logic programming language designed to find optimal solutions to problems involving many possible choices.
In 2005 she was elected as one of the seven members of the Executive Committee for the Association of Logic Programming, the professional society for logic programming founded in 1986. Maria and Peter Stuckey were the 2005 winners of the International Constraint Modelling Challenge.
In 2009 Maria become the Head of the Caulfield School of Information Technology, from 2013-2016 she served as Deputy Dean of Monash’s Faculty of Information Technology, and since 2017 she has served as one of the six elected members of the Executive Committee for the Association of Constraint Programming. She is a passionate advocate for gender equity in science, technology and engineering professions, and acts as a mentor for young women interested in pursuing STEM careers.
