Rohitash Chandra

Dr Rohitash Chandra is an Associate Professor in Data Science at the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics. His research program focuses on advancing the methodologies and applications of artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on Bayesian deep learning, large language models (LLMs), digital humanities, climate and environmental modelling, and mineral exploration. Dr Chandra's work is distinguished by its interdisciplinary scope, integrating advances in machine learning with applications across science, the humanities, and broader societal challenges. He has contributed to the emerging area of applying artificial intelligence to the analysis of philosophical and religious texts, as well as cinema and media studies, with a focus on understanding representation, interpretation, narratives, and patterns of social behaviour and abuse. More recently, his research has expanded into large language models and AI ethics, investigating questions related to personality, consciousness, human values, and the design of responsible and human-centred AI systems. Beyond science and engineering, Dr Chandra has strong interests in literature and the humanities and has edited and published poetry collections. He is also an advocate for human rights and diversity and served as a UNSW Cultural Diversity Champion (2021–2023). Dr Chandra has been the Data Theme Lead of the Australian Research Council (ARC ITTC) Training Centre for Data Analytics in Minerals and Resources (2020-2025). Dr Chandra has been one of the Chief Investigators of the NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund (2021-2022) project on the use of machine learning for COVID-19 drug repurposing. Dr Chandra is on the Editorial Board for Geoscientific Model Development published by EGU. He has served as an Associate Editor for International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics (2025), IEEE TNNLS, and Neurocomputing (2021-2022). Dr. Chandra is a Senior Member of IEEE and an Associate Fellow of the British Higher Education Academy (HEA). Dr Chandra is the founding director of the Transitional Artificial Intelligence Research Group (t-AI) at UNSW Sydney. Since 2020, Dr Chandra has been recognised consecutively in Stanford University's list of the World's Top 2% Scientists. Prior to joining UNSW, Dr Chandra held a Chancellor's Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney (2017 - 2019). Prior to this, he has taken roles as a Research Fellow in Machine Learning at Rolls Royce @Corp Lab, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Lecturer in Computing Science at the University of the South Pacific (2013- 2015). Originally from Nausori, Fiji, Dr Chandra has Girmit Indian heritage. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, deep learning, machine learning, earth sciences, abrupt and extreme climate change, digital humanities, engineering ethics, Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation and Machine Learning, Learning, Memory, Cognition and Language, Climate Change Processes, Applied Ethics, Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing