Since 1996, he is a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Melbourne. In June 2007, he became Dean of the School of Engineering, the University of Melbourne.
Previously he was a Reader at the Australian National University (1990-1996), a lecturer at the University of Newcastle (1988-1990) and the University of Gent (1986-1988).
He has received several awards in recognition of his research and teaching. He was a recipient of a 2008 Clunies Ross Award, Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering for his work on Smart Irrigation Systems, work that was also featured at the 2005 IFAC World Congress in Prague as a semi-plenary. In 2007 he received the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Knowledge Transfer Excellence award from the University of Melbourne, for his work in large scale irrigation systems with Rubicon Systems Australia. In 2005, he was named IEEE CSS Distinguished Lecturer, and in 1994 received the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Australian National University. He was a co-editor in chief of Systems & Control Letters till December 2007. He has received several awards for his publications.
He is Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australia, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (USA), a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia, a founding member of the Asian Control Association, and a member of the organising committee for the Asian Control Conference and for the Mathematical Theory in Networks and Systems conference. Over the period Jan 2003-Dec 2005 he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Control Systems Society IEEE. He is registered with the Institute of Engineers Australia as a professional engineer. He was the Chair of the National Committee for Automation, Control and Instrumentation (Australia 2005-2009). He is the Chair of the Technical Board of the International Federation of Automatic Control (and ex-officio Vice-President) for the triennium 2008-2011.
He is a Member of the Board of the Bionic Ear Institute (since 1998), and chairs its Scientific Review Committee, a Member of the Board of SPIRE (since 2002), a Member of the Board of the CRC SI (since 2007) and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre (since 2009) and a Member of the Steering Committee for the Centre for Neural Engineering (since 2009).
He has extensive experience in consulting for both industry and government. He has strong interests in education and has taught a broad range of subjects in both mechanical and electrical engineering curricula. He was one of the main developers (1990-1996) of the Bachelor of Engineering at the Australian National University and one of the architects (2006-…) of the 3+2 Master of Engineering education at Melbourne.
His research interests are in adaptive and learning systems, nonlinear control and modelling. At present his research focuses on modelling and controlling of large scale systems, both engineered as well as natural systems, such as large scale water networks and epilepsy.
Iven Mareels has published 3 books, two books are in press, he has published in excess of 120 journal publications and 230 conference publications. He holds 6 international patents.
He has supervised to completion more than 30 PhD students, 10 ME students and is currently supervising 5 PhD students.
