Pro Vice-Chancellor (Energy Futures) & Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER) 

Professor Michael Evan Goodsite is the foundation Pro Vice-Chancellor (Energy Futures) and holds the complementary role of Director of The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER).  His role is to consolidate the University’s position in renewable energy technologies and sustainability and to help position the University for a leadership role as the State and nation transition to a different energy future.

He helps coordinate relevant University research activities across the Faculties, as well as with strategic external research partners and represents the University in relation to sustainability and energy futures at all levels of Government and industry.  

In addition, Professor Goodsite leads the implementation and evolution of the University’s FAME Sustainability Strategy and has, where appropriate, oversight of the University’s sustainability initiatives on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research).

Professor Goodsite arrived to the University of Adelaide in October 2018 and has served in a number of leadership roles since his arrival. He created and was chair of the Faculty’s In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) initiative, which evolved into the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources and was the inaugural Director of Commercialisation for the Faculty of ECMS, authoring its commercialisation framework, starting its ‘Launchpad’. He was bid sponsor of the successful HiLT CRC.

He has academic, public and private company leadership and governance experience in many different countries since 1996. He currently is the Bid Sponsor for both the 'Copper For Tomorrow' and 'Scaling Green Hydrogen' CRC Bids and was formerly Director of the Nordic Centre of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research and a Ministerial appointee of the Danish National Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program. The Region of Southern Denmark Council Unanimously appointed him as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice-President (Regional Development) of the Region where he had amongst other responsibilities, energy within his portfolio. He has held leadership roles at two Danish Universities.

He is a former US military and NATO officer, and was one of the first Directors of the US Army Cyber Counterintelligence Activity. He Co-Directed the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Green Defence Technology: Triple Net Zero Energy, Water and Waste Models and Applications.

Current service includes appointments to the Board of the SA Hydrogen Hub, and formerly as the first professor elected to the Council of SACOME. He is a member of the corps of AusIMM trusted voice ambassadors and is appointed by the Minister to the SA Health Human Research Ethics Committee.

Professor Goodsite’s team conducts research into sustainability decision support framework for industrial system prioritization – focused on assessing energy mix and environmental efficiencies. He is a Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) he is a chartered (Civil, Environmental and Engineering Leadership and Management) professional engineer (CPEng, NER, APEC Engineer, IntPE(Aus)) as well as Engineering Executive (EngExec). He has his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona; M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Southern Denmark; his PhD in Climate and Environment from the University of Copenhagen and his MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is a member of the UoA ALLY Network and started a mentorship program for women.