Rate My Professor Doina Olaru

Doina Olaru is a Professor in the Department of Management and Organisations within the UWA Business School at the University of Western Australia. Educated in Romania, she obtained her PhD in Transport Engineering from the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest in 2000, focusing on econometric models for passenger transport demand estimation. Her professional journey started as an Engineer at the Romanian State Railways (1989-1995), followed by an Assistant Professor position at “Politehnica” University of Bucharest (1995-1999). She joined UWA as a Lecturer in 2000, advancing to Senior Lecturer (2011-2015) and Associate Professor, now Professor. She also served as Post-Doctoral Research Scientist at CSIRO Atmospheric Research (2003-2005).

Olaru's research specializations include urban planning and transport operations, travel behaviour modelling, accessibility, network analysis, data mining, and artificial intelligence applications in transport and business. She has produced over 175 research outputs, including the edited book Planning Boomtown and Beyond (2016), and notable papers such as Place vs. Node Transit: Planning Policies Revisited (Sustainability, 2019), Electric vehicle battery charging behaviour: findings from a driver survey (2013), A prototype analysis of trust in autonomous vehicles (AVs) (Transportation Research Part A, 2026), and Application of prototype analysis to organizational research (Organizational Research Methods, 2025). Recipient of several UWA Business School Excellence in Teaching Awards (2022, 2015), Best Paper Awards from Australian Transport Research Forum (2015), and Orator Dennis Moore Australian Computer Society (2021), she contributes to editorial boards of Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice and Research in Transportation Business and Management, and has secured 34 research grants including multiple ARC projects.