Dr. Frans Henskens

Frans Henskens was educated at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he completed a Bachelor of Mathematics degree in 1974 and a Diploma of Education (Maths) in 1975. He then spent 11 years working as a secondary school teacher. During this time Dr Henskens developed an interest in computers, and he completed a postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science with Merit in 1986, followed by a PhD in 1991. In 1988 he accepted a Senior Tutorship in Computer Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and in 1990 was promoted to lecturer. In 1992 he accepted a Lectureship at the University of Sydney. In 1995 he returned to Newcastle, where he held a lectureship in the Department of Management, for some years maintaining his association with the Basser Department of Computer Science as an Honourary Research Associate. In 1998 he was appointed to a position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Newcastle, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007. In 2002 he was awarded a Fellowship under the Baden-Württemberg Visiting Scholars Program to work in Ulm, Germany. Dr. Henskens' research interests have shifted towards medicine and currently centre on use of his computing skills, knowledge and experience towards improvement in health behaviour and hence of health outcomes for patients; he is currently a research scientist with the Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour. In parallel he maintains his long-standing interests in engineering of flexible software systems, bioinformatics, operating systems and computer forensics, distributed and grid computing, resilience and availability in database systems, and use of persistent stores for bulk data storage and manipulation. In 2007 his teaching was recognised by his receiving both the University of Newcastle Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence and the Australian College of Educators N.S.W. Quality Teaching Award. In 2016 his research supervision was recognised by his receiving the Vice Chancellor's Award for Research Supervision Excellence. Henskens retired prematurely in 2017 after several years of unresolved disagreement to do with Faculty and University procedures and policies.