Dr. Mark Apperley is Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He originally studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Auckland, and after a PhD involving digital data processing in radio astronomy, he held a post-doctoral research appointment at Imperial College, London, developing an interactive graphics CAD system for electronic circuits. He returned to New Zealand in 1975 as a lecturer in computer science at Waikato. In 1985, he moved to a chair at Massey University in Palmerston North, where he was Head of Department, and later Dean of the School of Mathematical and Information Sciences. He returned to Waikato in 1994 as Professor of Computer Science, and chairperson of the department. He became Dean of the then School of Mathematical and Information Sciences in 2003, a role he held for five years. For a 12-month period (2011-2012) he also served as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research).

For a large part of his academic career, the main focus of Mark’s research has human-computer interaction (HCI) and information visualization. However, over the past ten years he has also taken on a strong involvement in energy informatics, specifically the application of ICT in renewable and efficient energy utilization. His work in this area has included vehicle-to-grid technologies, community energy systems, and smart micro-grids.