CSIRO Alumni
This month, we’ve dedicated our newsletter to the topic of ‘Mentoring’
Find out how you can get involved in a range of mentoring opportunities and activities through the CSIRO Alumni network.
The research community is a long-term active user of mentoring as a key means to learning, networking and sharing information between colleagues across organisations and internationally.
Mentoring is one way to encourage and support people (both mentors and mentees) to learn continuously and to reflect on their learning and thinking processes. It can help you to plan, develop and manage your career.
Build your own network and make new connections through one of our programs.
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.
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 where you can 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.
Meet some of our CERC Postdocs
Read about one of our successful mentoring partnerships
Caroline Bray is a CERC Postdoc and was one of the first to be featured in our mentoring program.
“I feel having the chance to partner with an external mentor is a great opportunity. I didn’t know what to expect from the alumni network when I wrote my profile but was thrilled to be introduced to Dr Scott Watkins. His experience complements my own research and career aspirations as he transitioned early on from working in a laboratory environment to a managerial position. He has a wide network in the same field that I am currently working in and has been able to introduce me to people and has also given me some tips about expanding my network.
We meet online or chat via email as we haven’t been able to meet in person yet. He also regularly forwards me emails and links that he thinks may be useful and interesting.”
Dr Scott Watkins reflects on his role as a mentor "This has been my first interaction with the CSIRO Alumni mentorship project, and I’ve found it very interesting. I enjoyed my time at CSIRO, continue to hold it in high regard and continue to benefit from the networks and experience that I built there. Accordingly, the opportunity to give back feels quite rewarding. I’ve enjoyed learning about Caroline’s career, science and aspirations. I’m definitely keen to continue to be part of this.”
Caroline encourages CERC Postdocs to write their own profiles and asks our alumni members to read about the work we’re doing and offer their own expertise and experience as mentors.
Mentoring_NOW is a virtual meeting once a month via WebEx which brings together a range of people from diverse backgrounds to talk about issues related to the workplace.
Each meeting will have a topic and initial panel discussion. The conversation is free to flow in any direction as the need arises. Some meetings may have special external guests to speak on a topic as a catalyst for conversations.
Last year we invited alumni members as guest speakers and were fortunate to have Dr Geoff Garrett AO FTSE and Dr Rod Hill DSc (Adel) FTSE join the panel.
If you would like to attend upcoming events either as a mentor, mentee or guest speaker, please get in touch alumni@csiro.au
Following successful events in 2019 and 2020, the CERC Postdoc committee and the CSIRO Alumni network are organising the next round of talks. For each event we host a panel of former CSIRO colleagues talking to an audience of CERC Postdocs about their own career journeys and experiences.
We invite CSIRO Alumni members to join one of our future panels. This is a one-off commitment, will be held online and the event will run for 1-2 hours. With the ability to connect from wherever you may be based, we are keen to have alumni members from overseas join our panel too.
It’s a great opportunity for our CERC Postdocs to hear about roles outside of the organisation and potential career options. They appreciate your insight, advice and tips on life after CSIRO and inspiration to help them plan their own scientific careers.
Read about our previous events and speakers from 2019 and 2020
Please get in touch if you would like to speak on our panel alumni@csiro.au
One of our researchers, Dr Ronald Yu is the Australian Mensa National Gifted Children Coordinator.
He is organising a Mensa Australia team to compete in CyberTaipan 2021. He is hoping one of our CSIRO Alumni members could help as a mentor. The team need someone with background knowledge in Linux (Ubuntu & Debian), Window 10 Graphic User Interface, and PowerShell for Window Server.
About CyberTaipan
As cyber security becomes a critical priority for countries across the world, we’ll need a pipeline of cyber security professionals up for the challenges of the future.
Modelled on the US Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot Program, the CyberTaipan competition is part of the Global Youth Cyber Defence Challenge Network.
If you are interested in mentoring a Mensa Team or have any suggestions, please contact Dr Ronald YU, the Australian Mensa National Gifted Children Coordinator, at gcc@mensa.org.au
CSIRO Alumni members have been given exclusive access to join current staff for our ‘CSIRO Says’ online event 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.
Events are listed on the alumni calendar and you can also sign up to the mailing list by emailing alumni@csiro.au if you would like personal notifications of upcoming webcasts.