Tim McNamara is Professor in the School of Languages and Linguistics at The University of Melbourne. His main areas of research are in language testing (particularly specific purpose language testing, Rasch measurement, and the social and political functions of language tests), and in poststructuralist perspectives on language.

Tim was closely involved with the establishment of the Language Testing Research Centre at Melbourne, now in its 24th year. The Occupational English Test, which he developed and validated, is used internationally as a clinical communication screening test for migrant health professionals. His publications include Measuring Second Language Performance (Longman, 1996), Language Testing (OUP, 2000) and (with Carsten Roever) Language Testing: The Social Dimension, Blackwell, 2006). He is currently preparing a manuscript for publication entitled Language and Subjectivity. Tim was part of the original team that developed IELTS, and also worked on the development of the TOEFL-iBT speaking sub-test.