CSIRO Alumni
A belated Happy New Year!
In this month’s newsletter you’ll be able to read about our latest roadmap, upcoming events including the annual CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics, courses available for alumni members and learn about opportunities to get involved and volunteer.
CSIRO'S Circular Economy Roadmap charts path to triple job creation
A new roadmap released by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, has developed key strategies for creating jobs and reclaiming billions in economic value from plastic, glass, paper and tyres currently going into landfill.
Planet named after award-winning CSIRO scientist
Dr Alex Held, Director of the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation, has been recognised for his pioneering contributions to Earth observation and space research with the 2020 Harrie Massey Award.
Australia Day Honours 2021
We would like to congratulate one of our alumni, Dr Barry Inglis AO PSM FTSE, who been awarded Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia in this year’s Australia Day Honours List for his distinguished service to science and engineering, particularly to metrology, measurement standards and research, and to professional organisations.
Dr Inglis was the Director of the CSIRO’s National Measurement Laboratory (1994- 2004) and was the inaugural CEO and Chief Metrologist of Australia’s National Measurement Institute (NMI) which was set up in 2004.
We now have over 4,000 members but know that there are many more former colleagues out there. Help us build the alumni network and forward this newsletter on or share the link to alumni registration.
Many presentations and seminars are now being held online – so you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Our alumni calendar lists both CSIRO and external events, so you can find out about a wide range of events.
Upcoming events
2021 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics
17 February 4.00-5.00pm
Join us for an online event to celebrate this year’s scholarship winner, Alison Campbell.
The event will be hosted by Dr Sarah Pearce, Dr Scott Martin, Dr Bob Steele and Leanne Harris.
Our scholarship winner, Alison Campbell, will give a talk on her research on Organic Photovoltaics and her plans to travel to the University of Cambridge to use their ultrafast spectroscopic equipment.
Register here
The Digital Aspects of Additive Manufacturing in the Monash Technology Precinct
8 February 9.00-10.30am
Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing has been identified as a critical element of Australia’s economic development and a driver of future jobs growth.
The Monash Technology Precinct has an important capacity in this area. There is significant potential to grow additive manufacturing and jobs as part of a major activity to build manufacturing capabilities and local supply chains in Australia.
During this event, the participants will have the opportunity to hear from industry and research leaders about some of the key digital aspects related to additive manufacturing and how capabilities and solutions are being developed and offered across multiple sectors.
Register here
Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Seminar
9 February 1.00pm
We are delighted to bring you the next virtual Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Seminar Series. This will be an opportunity for you to hear, in detail, each month about the latest work from SynBioFSP funded projects, CSIRO-University Fellows and SynBioFSP PhD students.
Register here
Promote your own events
To help connect alumni with one another, we encourage you to list your own events on our website and discussion forum. Let us know if you are organising, presenting or attending events and we can help promote it to the alumni network – please email alumni@csiro.au
The CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics aims to connect the brightest young physicists or mathematicians to a leading research centre overseas or in Australia.
Our 2021 scholarship winner is Alison Campbell. At the award ceremony she will give a talk on her research on Organic Photovoltaics and her plans to travel to the University of Cambridge to use their ultrafast spectroscopic equipment.
We invite all alumni members to join us online to hear about Alison’s work and celebrate the alumni scholarship.
Register here
And we have news from our 2020 winner, Benjamin Dix-Matthews. He has recently published the results from his scholarship-funded collaboration with the French space agency (CNES) in Nature Communications.
'Point-to-point stabilized optical frequency transfer with active optics'
He says the whole project was an extremely valuable experience and he’s grateful that he was given the opportunity. He would like to sincerely thank the whole of the CSIRO Alumni.
CSIRO Early Research Career (CERC) Postdoctoral Fellows work alongside leading researchers on projects of national and global significance. They undertake independent research and are mentored by senior scientists, while being given access to generous personal development and learning opportunities.
Many of our alumni have expressed interest in volunteering as mentors, so we are running a pilot program to explore the interest and uptake in developing mentoring partnerships between CERC Postdocs and CSIRO Alumni members.
To encourage our alumni to volunteer as mentors, we’re offering you the opportunity to choose your own mentee. We have set up several CERC Postdoc profiles on our website and encourage you to read about their research and aims for a mentoring partnership.
In this way, you can see if there’s someone who might benefit from your own expertise and experience and get an understanding of expectations.
STEM professionals are highly valued in education for their specialised knowledge and breadth of experience. By volunteering through CSIRO’s STEM Professionals in Schools program, you can partner with a school teacher to help bridge the gap between classroom STEM subjects and their real life applications and career possibilities.
Recently retired CSIRO fisheries scientist Craig Proctor has been partnered with Indonesian language teacher Ingrid Colman at Lansdowne Crescent Primary School in Tasmania for a decade. Together they combine science, culture, and the Indonesian language into class activities that enthuse the students about marine science and the language, and show how Craig has applied them both in an interesting and meaningful research career that has seen him travel the world.
“On average I visit the school three times per year to deliver presentations on sustainable fisheries, and I also give a live demonstration of how we can determine the age of a fish by extracting the otoliths or the ear bones, from the fish’s head. The children are fascinated watching the dissection and it’s a lot of fun,” said Craig.
“I see it as a privilege to come to this school and share what I have learned over the course of my professional career. I’ve enjoyed sharpening my communication and presentation skills, and overall find it to be a very enjoyable volunteer experience.”
You can watch this video to learn more about Craig and Ingrid’s partnership.
STEM Professionals in Schools enhances STEM education by partnering teachers with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Each partnership is a flexible and unique arrangement based on the partners’ combined expertise, curriculum or student needs, and availability.
STEM professionals with a minimum of a bachelor degree in a STEM field, or evidence of equivalent experience in a STEM field are eligible to apply. All partnerships are supported by the national STEM Professionals in Schools team. The program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment. For more information and to register, visit www.csiro.au/en/Education/Programs/STEM-Professionals-in-Schools
Order by 15 February to score books at bargain prices. There are summery specials for explorers, nature lovers, bird watchers, gardeners and more!
Visit the On Sale page on our website to see the range.
CSIRO Publishing is kicking off the 2021 Scientific Writing programme with the following workshops which are available to alumni members.
Publishing with Impact: 2-day writing workshop
3-5 March 2021
Designed to increase the number and quality of papers published in high impact journals, this two-day workshop will motivate and equip early career researchers to communicate their research clearly and effectively.
Writing Effective Reports
22-23 Apr 2021
The workshop is designed to benefit anyone with a report in development. The course is highly interactive and participants work with their own report and a selection of published reports to ensure relevant practice in the topics presented.
We love to hear from our alumni members, so get in touch and let us know what you are up to – reach out to the network for help or promote your events, research or successes.
Please email alumni@csiro.au