Mark Humphrey received PhD (1987) and DSc (2002) degrees from the University of Adelaide and a DUniv (h.c.) from the Université Rennes 1, France (2019). He held positions at Universität Würzburg, Germany (1987-1989), the University of Illinois, USA (1989-1990), and the University of New England (1990-1994), before being appointed to the ANU as Lecturer in 1994 and being promoted to Senior Lecturer (1995), Reader (1998) and Professor (2003). He has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences (2020) and the Academia Europaea (2021).

He has been awarded fellowships by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany, 1987), Telstra (Australian Telecom) (1991), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (1997), the Science and Technology Agency (Japan, 2001), the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK, 2002), and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2009), as well as the inaugural RACI Organometallic Award (1998), the RACI Inorganic Award (Burrows Award) (2008), the RACI H.G. Smith Memorial Medal (2010), the RACI A.E. Leighton Memorial Medal (2017), and the David Syme Research Prize (2001), an ARC Australian Research Fellowship (1994), ARC Senior Research Fellowship (1999), and two ARC Australian Professorial Fellowships (2004, 2009). He has been Professeur Invité at the Université Rennes I (France) on several occasions (2007, 2015, 2016, 2019), Professeur Invité at INSA-Rennes (2025), Visiting Professor at the KU Leuven (Belgium) (2006), and was an Honorary Professor at Nanjing University of Science and Technology (2007-2021) and Jiangsu University (2007-2021). He was Associate Director (Research) of the RSC, ANU (2011-2013), a former Chair of the Inorganic Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (2010-2013), and a former President of the ACT Branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (1999-2001). He was the Australian Director of the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research-funded Australia-China Joint Research Centre for Functional Molecular Materials (2009-2011), a CNRS (France)-funded CNRS International Associated Laboratory (2017-2020), a CNRS (France)-funded International Research Project (2021-2025), and is Australian Director of a CNRS (France)-funded International Research Project (2026-2030). He was a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts (2016-2018) and a member of two ARC Excellence in Research for Australia Research Evaluation Committees (2012, 2018).