Rate My Professor Doreen Thomas

Thomas's research centers on mathematical network optimization with applications to electrical and mechanical engineering, particularly underground mine design. She founded the start-up MineOptima to commercialize her optimization software, which designs efficient tunnel networks to reduce development time and haulage costs; the company was acquired by RPMGlobal, and the software has been licensed to major mining companies worldwide. She has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and technical reports, including key works such as "Network optimization for the design of underground mines" (2006), "Optimal Charging of Electric Vehicles Taking Distribution Network Constraints Into Account" (2015), "An exact algorithm for the bottleneck 2-connected k-Steiner network problem in L_p planes" (2016), and recent papers on curvature-constrained Steiner networks and mine pushback design. Her contributions have earned her the Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2011), Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (2012), induction into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women (2019), and Member of the Order of Australia (2021) for service to tertiary engineering education, research, and women in the field. As a passionate advocate for gender equity in STEM, she chairs the ATSE STEM Education Forum, and the University of Melbourne's engineering school offers postdoctoral fellowships named in her honor.