Associate ProfessorNatalie Lander

A/Prof Natalie Lander is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Associate Professor at Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), whose research sits at the intersection of digital innovation, implementation science, education, health and sport. Her work focuses on developing technological solutions to complex education, public health and sport challenges, translating research into protected intellectual property and scalable, implementation-ready digital systems for real-world settings.

Holding qualifications in Applied Science and Education, Educational Psychology, Health Science (Hons) and a PhD, Natalie leads interdisciplinary programs integrating AI, computer vision, population-level data systems and evidence-based practice to improve health, learning and wellbeing outcomes. Her research has achieved international reach, with citations across more than 75 countries and publications spanning education, health, medicine and sport science.

Natalie brings more than a decade of experience as a lead teacher in primary and secondary schools and a further decade of university teaching experience across undergraduate and postgraduate programs. This extensive practice and education background underpins her focus on developing solutions that are both research-rigorous, scalable and implementation-ready.

Natalie has secured more than $4.5 million in competitive research funding and has developed major partnerships across government, education, health, sport, community and technology sectors. Her translational research has been recognised through multiple awards, including Overall Winner of the 2025 Faculty of Health Partnerships in Practice Award and the 2025 Journal of Motor Learning and Development Excellence in Research Award for pioneering AI-enabled motor competence assessment.

Natalie is Co-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity’s School Physical Activity Special Interest Group and Co-Lead of the IPAN Research Excellence Program, supporting research collaboration, translation and the development of future research leaders.