New Head of School of IT at Monash South Africa

16 March 2005

Monash South Africa has announced the appointment of Dr Jacques Steyn as Head of School of Information Technology.

Dr Steyn, who has a PhD in complex systems and languages, joined Monash South Africa as a Senior Lecturer during 2003.

Prior to this he worked as a Senior Lecturer the University of South Africa (UNISA) and was Associate Professor at the School of Information Technology at the University Pretoria, where he participated in the development of the first multimedia degree to be offered in South Africa .

"We are delighted to have someone of Dr Steyn's calibre heading up our School of Information Technology ," says Professor John Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor at Monash South Africa .

In 1982, Dr Steyn received an award for Excellent Scientific Contribution from the South African Association for the Advancement of Science for his Masters thesis. For the past ten years he has been an internet information consultant focusing on the area of web technologies.

Dr Steyn's main research interest is self-organising complex systems. He has developed an XML-based music language and is involved with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) which is working on incorporating music notation within MPEG standards. He is also the South African representative at ISO/MPEG.

During 2004, Dr Steyn founded the South African Music in Multimedia work group, which this year is set to become an interest group in the Multimedia Association of South Africa.

Dr Steyn is looking forward to his new position: "I feel privileged to be taking on this role at this dynamic and growing campus."

Issued by Monash South Africa 23 February 2005
For more information contact Jeanette Lamont, Marketing Communications Officer
Tel +27 11 950 4203 or email jeanette.lamont@adm.monash.edu