John Zeleznikow is Professor of Information Systems at Victoria Business School, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia and Director of the Joseph Bell Centre for Forensic Statistics and Legal Reasoning at the University of Edinburgh Law School. He has conducted research for 49 years, in Australia, USA, France, Netherlands, Israel, Scotland, Spain, Poland and Estonia. He has received over $A8,000,000 in research grants: from the Australian Research Council, European Union, Scottish Higher Education Funding Authority, French Scientific Council and Dutch Scientific Council. He is the author of four research monographs, 88 refereed journal articles and over 200 refereed conference articles.
Twenty of his PHD students have graduated students (including one who is a professor at Harvard Medical School) and six postdoctoral fellows He has published four research monographs (including Cambridge University Press) and ninety-five refereed journal articles (including Harvard Negotiation Law Review) as well as over two hundred refereed conference articles and book chapters. He has performed pioneering research on using machine learning and game theory to support legal decision making.
On 16 November 2005, he and a former PhD student Dr Emilia Bellucci won their heat of ABC television's New Inventors program for software that assists divorcing couples to negotiate their disputes.
In 1996, his Split-Up system, which used machine learning to predict the distribution of marital property following divorce, received international recognition when it was applied to the Divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Di. The London Daily Telegraph, in a front page article on July 4 1996, had as its headline 'Aussie Computer kind to Lady Di'. In November 2005, his Family-Winner software, which assisted separating parents to negotiate their property disputes through the use of trade-offs won its heat of the ABC TV 'New Inventors' program.
Over the past 25 years, Professor Zeleznikow has focused on how artificial intelligence can be used to enhance decision-making. Specific examples have been created in the domains of law, negotiation and sport. His research findings have been utilised by law and mediation firms, Victoria Legal Aid, Relationships Australia Queensland, Victorian Institute of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport, and Relationships Australia Victoria.
Professor Zeleznikow’s previous positions include Director of The Joseph Bell Centre for Forensic Statistics and Legal Reasoning at the University of Edinburgh Law School, Head of the Department of Computer Science at Latrobe University and Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Business and Law at Victoria University.