Roland (Roly) Denis Sussex is Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures of the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He is a specialist in comparative linguistics, particularly of the European languages, and takes an interest in the Slavic languages within this group. He is also keenly interested in the changes experienced by different languages, such as the influence of American English on Australian English. He has a major research involvement in intercultural communicartion and in pain and communication.

Sussex has hosted a talkback program on language and linguistics on ABC radio in Queensland since 1997. , 

He is an honorary life member of the Alliance Française, and patron of the Institute of Professional Editors, and of .the Communication and Speech Performance Teachers Inc. He Is Emeritus Professor of Applied Language Studies at the School of Languages and Cultures of the University of Queensland. He holds an OAM and is a Chevalier des Palmes Acadéniques.