Mary Josephine O'Kane

Mary O'Kane was born in 1954 in Mount Morgan, Queensland, Australia. She was educated in Toowoomba, Queensland. She then studied at the University of Queensland where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in mathematics and physics.

She commenced her PhD at the Australian National University and was the recipient of a scholarship that allowed her to complete post-doctoral research at the University of Turin. She received her PhD in 1982.

O'Kane returned to Australia, where she worked at the NSW Institute of Technology. She received a Lectureship appointment in Artificial Intelligence and Theory of Computation at the Canberra College of Advanced Education, and was Dean of the Faculty of Information Sciences and Engineering at the University of Canberra from 1989 to 1993. She moved to the University of Adelaide in 1994, serving as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and later as Vice-Chancellor and President from 1996 to 2001.