CSIRO Alumni
In this month’s newsletter you’ll be able to read about our latest projects, register for exclusive events, hear stories from alumni members and find out about courses, jobs and volunteer opportunities.
CSIRO plays part in US next-gen solar thermal technology
The US government announced it will fund a pilot-scale test facility to demonstrate a next-generation concentrated solar thermal (CST) technology that Australia helped develop.
The falling particle CST technology is 100 per cent renewable and can store multiple hours of thermal energy for firm, fully dispatchable power generation.
It is a simple, thermally stable and relatively low-cost system with applications for power generation and heat processing across mining, mineral processing, chemical processing and other high temperature industrial processes.
Catalysing Innovation to End Plastic Waste
In response to the serious and growing challenge of marine plastic waste, Indonesian and Australian leaders have agreed to set up a Plastics Innovation Hub to strengthen collaboration and create immediate reductions in marine plastics leakage.
To understand how this Hub can address the most pressing challenges, CSIRO hosted a Plastics Innovation Symposium on 15th & 16th March, which had 80+ participants from across government, industry, investors, startups/SMEs, research agencies & universities, NGOs and venture builders.
Watch this video to learn more about the Plastics Innovation Hub.
Help grow our alumni network
We now have over 4,200 members but we 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
CSIRO Says
CSIRO Alumni members have been given exclusive access to join current staff for our ‘CSIRO Says’ series.
This webcast series highlights our core business of delivering excellent science. These 45-minute webcasts feature high quality presentations of research and innovation and show how this delivers on our strategic objectives. There is a wealth of great work going on across CSIRO and this is a good way of staying in touch with it.
14 April 2:00pm – 2:45pm (AEST)
Monica Chen: Simulation and modelling for your financial decisions
Chloe Mackallah: Climate and Earth System modelling – from Fortran code to the Paris climate agreement
Tomasz Bednarz: Hybrid Analytics and Simulation and Modelling
Webcast link: https://webcast.csiro.au/#/webcasts/csirosays
Alumni attending this webcast will need to click on this link, then follow the instructions for ‘Guests’
Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Seminars
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.
14 April: 12.00-13.00
Online event - Webinar login details will be emailed to registrants
“A dual glycoengineering system; the prospects of a multi-avenue approach to targeted glycoprotein production” - Nicholas DeBono, Macquarie University and CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform
“Design of switchable protein interfaces: harnessing post-translational modifications for synthetic biology” - Dr Daniel Winter, University of New South Wales and CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform Fellow
Human Centric AI Seminar Series
The Human Centric Security team are running a new monthly series “The Human Centric AI Seminars”, focusing on research topics in human centred AI.
Such focus areas include (but are not limited to):
- Human-friendly collaboration and co-creation in mixed human-AI settings
- Multimodal perception of dynamic real-world environments and social settings
- Human-in-the-loop machine learning, reasoning and planning
14 April: 13.00 – 13.40
“Explainable artificial intelligence: beware the inmates running the asylum (or How I learnt to stop worrying and love the social and behavioural sciences)” - Tim Miller, Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne, and Co-Director for the Centre of AI and Digital Ethics
If you would like to be added to the mailing list for future Human Centric AI Seminars, please contact kristen.moore@data61.csiro.au Full details of this series can be found on our seminar home page.
Co-learnium and Journal Club Talk Series
Alumni members are welcome to join our CSIRO astronomy and space science community presentations. We explore a range of topics of general interest - our previous talks have included telescopes, astronomical sources, software programs, statistical methods, historical talks and visiting speakers from teams across CSIRO. Our events are quite short, with typically a 20-minute talk, following by 10 minutes of interesting discussion.
To register for our mailing list please contact george.hobbs@csiro.au
In case you missed it
Feb 2021: CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics
This year’s winner was Alison Campbell and the award was presented by Dr Sarah Pearce, Deputy Director CASS and acting Chief Scientist of CSIRO. Alison’s project is “Frontiers in Organic Photovoltaics” and she is planning to use the scholarship funds to travel to the University of Cambridge to use their ultrafast spectroscopic equipment.
Mar 2021: Sir Robert Price lecture
The lecture series commemorates the achievements of Sir Robert Price who made significant contribution to the growth and development of chemistry in Australia, and to the development of public sector research.
The 2021 lecture was entitled, “The lithium battery: From a dream to domination of energy storage.”
Our speaker was M. Stanley Whittingham, Professor and Director, NECCES who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 for his significant contributions to the development of lithium-ion batteries.
Promote your own events
To help connect alumni with one another, we encourage you to list your own events on our website. 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
Inspiring students with STEM in Western Sydney
Do you want to inspire students and help build the STEM workforce of the future?
Now there is an exciting new opportunity for CSIRO Alumni to get involved in building a bigger, stronger and more diverse STEM talent pipeline in Western Sydney.
Major new developments in Western Sydney, including the Western Sydney Airport and surrounding aerotropolis, will create a wealth of opportunities across all industries. To pursue these opportunities, industry needs greater access to a workforce with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
Generation STEM is a 10-year initiative delivered by CSIRO Education and Outreach to attract, support, retain and train NSW students into STEM career pathways. As part of Generation STEM, the STEM Community Partnerships Program (STEM CPP) empowers young people with the relevant skills to pursue a STEM career. The aim is to inspire local Year 9 and 10 students into STEM educational and career pathways and showcase the exciting opportunities available at their doorstep.
Last year, a dynamic CSIRO delivery team overcame a host of challenges and proudly delivered Generation STEM’s first ever Virtual Student Project Showcase.
With hundreds of students keen to learn more about the potential of a STEM career and where it can take them, there are a number of ways CSIRO Alumni can get involved.
We invite you to share your own unique STEM story, the lessons you’ve learnt on your own career path, specialised skills you bring to your role, your workplace environment and advice for students pursing a STEM career. Time commitment and involvement is flexible.
For more information, visit Generation STEM’s website at www.csiro.au/generationSTEM. To discuss how you can get involved with the team, email generationSTEM@csiro.au.
We feature a range of alumni stories on our website celebrating the achievements of our members. We encourage members to get in touch and send in their stories of trials and tribulations – all in the name of scientific research!
On a sadder note, if you would like to let the alumni network know about the passing of one of our members, please email us and we can post a notice to the news page and also feature an obituary within our stories section.
We recently heard from Dr RH Brown about his latest book:
“After 10 years of real science as chief of the old Division of Manufacturing Technology (1980 – 1990), some experience in the early days of setting up CRC's and a stint of international manufacturing consulting research, old age has led me into science fiction and in October last year I published a book "An Ätman Visits Planet Earth – 250 million years of evolution”. Using a bit of current day science and extension into imaginary science I have been able to arrange for a robotic type individual to visit Earth 250 million years ago and for him to observe changes in the planet since that time; using additive manufacture to recreate a new body for himself every million years or so. In this way the book provides a realistic outsider’s view of the human race – it's brilliant creativity and devastating side-effects on the planet. I have tried to make the book highlight the stark risks facing the future of the human race; a science fiction solution is proposed, but realistic solutions are implied.”
More details: https://hallowesbrown.net/index.html
If you have written a book or have any stories that you’d like to share with the alumni network, please email alumni@csiro.au
Courses
Career development is important, and we are keen to support our alumni members on their professional journeys. Check out the upcoming courses which are available to alumni.
Please let us know if you are organising a course and would like to promote it to alumni members.
Jobs
We are hiring – please feel free to share these opportunities with anyone who might be interested:
The Research Vessel (RV) Investigator offers a flexible platform for marine and atmospheric research from ice edge to equator.
Find out how to apply for sea time, explore the different streams of access, view the MNF Operational Rolling Plan 2021 or prepare yourself for joining a voyage.
Antarctic voyage delivers breakthrough krill research
After a voyage of almost 10,000 nautical miles, facing nine metre seas, Australian Antarctic Program scientists return to Hobart to shed new light on the krill populations that underpin marine ecosystems of the Southern Ocean.
STEM Professionals in Schools has launched a new program website as part of a CSIRO-wide website relaunch! Our new website offers an improved user experience including brand new content, a fresh new look, and easier navigation to help you find the information you’re looking for quickly and easily.
Please note that due to the relaunch, some of our webpage URLs have changed. If you have saved or bookmarked some of our previous website pages, these may be affected.
The link to our homepage remains the same. www.csiro.au/en/Education/Programs/STEM-Professionals-in-Schools.
We recommend taking a moment to look around our new website, and to save or bookmark any pages you would like for future reference. The website also contains links for existing program participants to sign in to the Education Portal e.g. to complete a Partnership Activity Update.
We hope you enjoy our new website. If you have any questions or would like to know more, please email stemprofessionalsinschools@csiro.au
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