Rate My Professor Marcella Papini

Dr Marcella Papini is a Lecturer in Data Science and Optimisation at the School of Computer and Information Sciences within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a Doctor of Engineering from the University of Bremen, Germany, and a Master of Science in Production Engineering from the Federal University of Itajubá, Brazil. Dr Papini's academic interests center on mathematical optimisation, operations research, logistics, transport, and waste management. She develops computational methods to enhance operational systems across various sectors, balancing economic performance, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility, guided by United Nations Sustainable Development Goals including SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Prior to her current appointment, Dr Papini served at the University of Wollongong's SMART Infrastructure Facility as Honorary Fellow (2023–2024), Lecturer in Career Development (2022–2023), Research Fellow (2022), and Associate Research Fellow (2019–2022). She co-founded the Women’s Research Engineers Network (WREN) in 2021, building a global community of over 2,000 members across six countries that delivers career development programs, networking events, workshops, and the annual WREN Symposium focused on the SDGs. WREN received the University of Newcastle Excellence Award in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (2025) and the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor Rosemary Cooper Equity Diversity and Inclusion Award (2023). Further honors include Best Conference Paper at the 7th Luso-Brazilian Congress for Urban, Regional, Integrated and Sustainable Planning (2016). Dr Papini has produced 14 journal articles, four conference papers, and two book chapters, with key works such as "A flexible variable neighbourhood search algorithm for different variants of the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem" (Computers & Operations Research, 2024), "Achieving robustness in the capacitated vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands" (Transportation Letters, 2023), and "Management of Household Plastic Waste in Wollongong, Australia: The Role of Selective Waste Collection Systems" (Sustainability, 2023). Her research has garnered $1,494,482 in funding from 13 grants, including the Theo Murphy Initiative ($29,000, 2024–2025). She supervises PhD candidates at the University of Newcastle and TU Braunschweig and has mentored 11 students from diverse backgrounds.