Geoff Spinks received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1990 for his work on the mechanical behaviour of polymers and he has maintained a research interest in this area specialising in mechanical actuator materials (artificial muscles). Geoff is currently Senior Professor and Head of School in the School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering. Geoff is also the founder and Director of UOW Makerspace. Geoff has published over 240 journal articles, including 7 co-authored articles in Science magazine. As at December 2021, he had in excess of 17,000 citations and an "h-index" of 62. Geoff has worked closely with industry including sabbatical leave with BHP Research and Allied Signal Inc. (USA) and collaborative projects funded by industry and through the ARC Linkage and CRC schemes. Geoff has had a strong engagement with teaching across all levels of engineering materials and was co-founder of UOWs bachelor degrees in Nanotechnology. He has supervised 25 PhD, 7 Masters and over 50 final year / honours students to completion. His current interests include new product development and new manufacturing methods (such as 3D printing) that utilise his artificial muscle materials.