Professor Michael Frater is the Rector of the University College of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Previous leadership roles include Head of the School of Engineering and Information Technology (2009-2010), Head of the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (2007-2009), and Presiding Member of the University College Academic Board (2006-2007). Michael Frater holds bachelor degrees in electrical engineering and science from the University of Sydney, a Masters in Higher Education from the University of New South Wales and a Doctor of Philosophy in systems engineering from the Australian National University. In 1995, he held the position of Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow, Institute of Computer Science at the University of Würzburg, Germany His major research interest is in communications applications. He is currently pursuing projects in video communications and underwater networks. He is the author or co-author of six books and over one hundred refereed technical articles. From 2000-2001, he served as an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. Michael Frater has also pursued practical application of this technology through involvement in the development of international standards, primarily through the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG), a working group of the International Standards Organisation (ISO). He served as head of the Australian delegation to MPEG for a number of years, and was the editor of a standard (ISO/IEC 14496-4, MPEG-4 Conformance), for which he was awarded an ISO Service Award in 2002. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia.