Maria Orlowska's research covers a diverse range of interests; from pure theoretical and fundamental contributions to applied and experimental computing issues. Over the past twenty years, her research has impacted on a number of areas in the Information Technology field, including: Relational Database Theory, Distributed Database Systems, Integration of Database Systems into Multi-database Systems, Data Warehousing and Data Mining and Business Process Management, Modelling and Enactment.
Her contributions appear in over 280 published research papers in peer reviewed international journals and conferences. Over thirty PhD students have successfully completed their studies under her supervision. To date she has served on many Program Committees of international conferences, and also undertaking major conference roles like PC Chair, General Chair and so on for 50 international conferences.
Maria gained her PhD (Computer Science) in June 1981, from the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Technical University of Warsaw, and was awarded the Polish Ministry of Education Award for best thesis in the Computer Science area. She gained a DSc (Computer Science) in July 2004 from The University of Queensland, Australia and degree of Doctor Habilitowany (Habilitation in Computer Science) from IPI Polish Academy of Sciences in October 2004.
Since September 1990, Maria holds a tenured position as Professor of Information Systems in the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, and is currently the Head of the school research division of Data & Knowledge Engineering. From July 1992 she acted as the Distributed Databases Unit Leader, and more recently the leader of the Workflow Technology Group for the Cooperative Research Centre for Distributed Systems Technology Pty Ltd (DSTC). In August 2004 she was awarded an innovative Commonwealth funded network grant for a period of 5 years, and is now acting as Network Convenor for the ARC Research Network on Enterprise Information Infrastructure.
In recognition of her contribution to DSTC research, Maria was awarded the Distinguished Research Fellow of DSTC Pty Ltd in 2000. Through her DSTC workflows research, she gained the Queensland government IT&T Award for Transactional Workflows Systems in 1997, and in 2001, she was Asia Pacific IT&T Awards finalist in the Education area for the Flex-eL system. From March 2002 until 31 December 2004, Maria was a Board Member of the Australian Research Council (ARC), and also acted on the Expert Advisory Committee for ARC Mathematics, Information and Communication Sciences. Also in 2004, she acted as Chair of the ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) panel at the national level. In March 2003, Maria was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
On 1 January 2008 Professor Maria E. Orłowska was nominated the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland.
Research for Sustainable DevelopmentResearch for Sustainable Development
