George Willis

George A. Willis FAA (born 10 November 1954, Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian mathematician. Willis received BSc (1976) and BSc (Hons) degrees in mathematics from the University of Adelaide (1977), and a doctorate from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1981) under the supervision of Professor B. E. Johnson. He is currently Laureate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Newcastle (Australia). He is best known for his works in group theory, particularly totally disconnected groups. Career Willis' career has been largely spent at the University of Newcastle (Australia). He was appointed full Professor as well as ARC Professorial Fellow in 2009, and ARC Laureate Fellow in 2018. After the conferral of his doctorate degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1981, he returned to Australia and took up a position as the Rothman's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New South Wales. From 1983 to 1985 he worked at the University of Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, and then returned again to Australia as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow at the University of Adelaide, before beginning a lectureship at Flinders University of South Australia in 1987. Willis then moved to the Australian National University as a research fellow in 1989, before finally moving to the University of Newcastle (Australia) to take up a lectureship where he is now Emeritus Professor. During his career he has published widely and has advised 14 PhD students (as of April 2023).