CSIRO Alumni
In this month’s newsletter you can read some of our recent news highlights and hear about upcoming events, job opportunities and the CSIRO Alumni Physics scholarship. Hear from one of our alumni working with BARLEYmax®, get ready for Christmas with CSIRO Publishing offers and help us to update our CSIROpedia records.
We need a complete transformation of our economy
We have to reimagine our industries and way of life, and do so while remaining profitable and internationally competitive, Dr Larry Marshall, CSIRO Chief Executive, writes in the Australian Financial Review.
Top businesswoman to lead Australia's national science agency
One of Australia’s most experienced company directors, professional engineer Kathryn Fagg AO, has been appointed Chair of Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Landmark trial eliminates pest mosquito
In a first for the Southern Hemisphere, researchers have shown a bacteria can successfully sterilise and eradicate the invasive, disease carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito which is responsible for spreading dengue, yellow fever and Zika.
Australia claims historic top two spot in the 'Robot Olympics'
Robotics experts led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, have beaten teams from NASA JPL/MIT, California Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University to claim second place in a world leading robotics competition dubbed the ‘Robot Olympics’.
Help grow our alumni network
We now have over 4,300 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
Australia’s massive opportunity for underground hydrogen storage
29 October
For Australia to adopt hydrogen as a widespread energy carrier, millions of tonnes of storage options will be needed to buffer the fluctuations in supply and demand, both for domestic use and for export. Future Fuels CRC’s latest research maps out the high-level availability of potential sites in Australia and develops a method for selecting suitable storage sites that match hydrogen production needs.
To understand the potential for Australia’s sub-surface to store our future clean energy needs please join our lead researcher Dr Jonathan Ennis-King of CSIRO and an industry panel for this free webinar.
Food Structures, Digestion & Health 6th International Conference
16-19 November
The Food Structures, Digestion and Health 6th International Conference is focused on increasing awareness that food format and food structure have a significant effect on the bio-availability of nutrients. The focus has shifted development of nutritional guidelines away from the more traditional approach of simply examining the nutrient composition of foods.
This important conference presents a unique opportunity to bring together food industry professionals, and world leading scientists – from diverse disciplines including food science, nutrition, digestive behaviour and medical science with a common interest in food design that delivers better nutrition and functionality and improves consumer wellbeing.
Antimicrobial Resistance Summit 2021
17-18 November
You are invited to join us for this special event which aims to identify and share actions and approaches we need to take to achieve the greatest impact in mitigating the rise of antimicrobial resistance in Australia. This will be through eliciting creative ideas and cutting-edge solutions inspired by technology and cross-functional collaboration.
Hosted by CSIRO in partnership with the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources.
At this two-day meeting you will hear keynote addresses and panel discussions, participate in robust dialogue, and contribute to ensuring that Australia benefits from the development and delivery of innovative products, policies, and processes that are essential if we are to tackle AMR.
SMEs and Cyber: Raising the bar of cyber security awareness among Australian SMEs
2 December
Innovate to Grow, CSIRO’s Data61 and the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre are excited to announce the upcoming workshop aimed at providing SMEs with a program tailored to understand the role that cyber security plays within their organisation. This workshop is crafted with the needs identified by SMEs in this domain in mind and is aimed at bringing practical and relevant research and developments directly to the SMEs.
Strengthen your current understanding of cyber security, engage with cyber security specialists, and learn through practical exercises and demos how to best tackle cyber security challenges within your organisation. Through attending this workshop, you will start your journey to build a stronger cyber security posture. This 3-hour workshop is free to attend but will require registration.
Generation STEM – Virtual Showcases 2021
Generation STEM would like to invite you to our Virtual Showcases 2021. Students showcase their STEM solutions developed as part of the STEM Community Partnerships Program. This program aims to create strong partnerships between local schools and industry, with the goal of highlighting local STEM careers and opportunities and providing avenues for students to develop their STEM skills in a locally meaningful way.
Participating students have been investigating local issues such as city life, transport, recycling, and waste management challenges with the support of their teachers and industry mentors and have worked throughout the year to prepare their projects to be presented to the community.
At the showcase, you will have the opportunity to view the student solutions, ask questions and engage with the next generation of future thinkers.
If you would like to attend, please register for the event you wish to attend. Note, the times of the showcases are AEDT (Sydney time).
Liverpool City Council: Wednesday 10 November 2021: 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Penrith City Council: Thursday 11 November 2021: 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Blacktown City Council: Tuesday 23 November 2021: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Camden Council: Wednesday 24 November 2021: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Campbelltown City Council: Thursday 25 November 2021: 5:00 – 6:00 pm
Canterbury-Bankstown City Council: Monday 29 November 2021: 4:00 – 5:00 pm
Fairfield City Council: Thursday 2 December 2021: 5:00 – 6:00 pm
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
We partner with companies of all sizes to take our world-class technologies to market and deliver positive outcomes for Australia.
More than 180 companies have been born from CSIRO technology. These companies have a combined market capitalisation in excess of AUD$3 billion.
Paul Sims is one of our CSIRO Alumni members and is keen to share an update on the success of BARLEYmax® barley, the nutritionally superior wholegrain developed by CSIRO.
Amongst the CSIRO Alumni there will be quite a few who worked directly on this product and a greater number aware of it, and hopefully an even greater number who regularly consume foods containing BARLEYmax® ingredients!
For those reasons, Paul thought that a short update on the success of BARLEYmax® commercialisation might be of interest to the alumni.
Paul originally worked on the BARLEYmax® commercialisation when he was at CSIRO. In 2017 he left to join The Healthy Grain, a separate company which has three shareholders, one of which is CSIRO.
Paul is now the Technical Business Manager and reflects on his time at CSIRO and how it led to his current role, “It is hard to list all the skills I gained at CSIRO but certainly their breadth has proven invaluable in working for a small company such as The Healthy Grain where multi-tasking is an essential staff capability.”
Paul highlights how the development of this product is a great example of the tremendous skills of CSIRO staff. “It’s an example of some advanced thinking – to develop such a product at a time when the concept of such nutritionally superior grains did not exist. There were and are so many people involved in its progress from an idea to being on supermarket shelves. It has been an incredible experience seeing this transition.”
Paul really enjoys working with a great team and seeing a great product become a commercial success!
Paul has stayed in regular contact with CSIRO staff in relation to BARLEYmax® matters and hopes to reconnect with other former colleagues through the CSIRO Alumni network.
Any enquiries please email Paul.Sims@TheHealthyGrain.com who would very much enjoy answering alumni questions.
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.
If you have received an award, written a book or have any stories that you’d like to share with the alumni network, please email alumni@csiro.au
CSIROpedia explores some of CSIRO’s greatest innovations and discoveries across the decades and provides brief biographies of the people responsible. It focuses on achievements that have been recognised by major honours and awards or research that has had significant commercial outcomes or benefit to society.
We know there may be CSIRO Alumni members out there that meet the criteria and would like to contribute to the growing collection of stories. This is a great way to highlight the achievements of CSIRO’s people and the significant impact they’ve had.
We also have a list of CSIROpedia New Companies and are keen to capture those that have spun out of CSIRO, or use CSIRO technology - so please get in touch if you’d like to list your business.
We are keen to reach alumni who may have left without knowing about our network.
If you know of any industry or organisation newsletters, websites or blogs that could help promote the CSIRO Alumni network, please get in touch. We can offer reciprocal promotion with listing and news posts through our own website!
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Stay in touch – join the CSIRO Alumni network
We are reaching out to former staff to encourage them to join our alumni network. We are keen to encourage collaboration between CSIRO and past colleagues with many opportunities to work together through our various programs and research.
With over 4,300 members and growing fast, our CSIRO alumni network offers you the opportunity to expand your network, attend exclusive events, hear about the latest research and share your experience and expertise.
Whether you’re Australia-based or overseas, if you have worked for CSIRO in any capacity in the past, we invite you to join our alumni network and share in the opportunities that collaboration brings.
For more information and to register, please go to www.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.
Research in physics and mathematics is fundamental for Australia’s future. The founders of this scholarship know that early experience in leading overseas laboratories greatly benefits the graduate embarking on a research career and Australian science.
The scholarship was established in conjunction with generous donations from the family, friends and colleagues of Drs John Dunlop, Tony Farmer, Gerry Haddad and Don Price to honour their memory.
They were leaders and mentors in the physics community, inspiring those around them and they enjoyed nothing more than passing on their skills and knowledge to younger scientists. It is fitting to honour their memories through the establishment of a post-graduate scholarship based on academic achievement.
Applications for the 2022 scholarship are now open and close on 3 December 2021. Feel free to share with those who may be interested - use the links below or share on LinkedIn
Application Criteria for the 2022 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics
Science is a Gift!
This festive season find the perfect present for your friends and family with the CSIRO Publishing Gift Ideas Catalogue. Order by 3 December and we'll give you a head start on the merry-making with free shipping on Australian and New Zealand orders over $80 plus marked special prices.
Aiming for delivery before Christmas? Be sure to shop early this year!
Free to read online: Animal Production Science in the 21st Century
Animal Production Science celebrates 60 years of publication in 2021 and to celebrate, we are marking this milestone with this selection of key review papers published in the journal over the last decade, highlighting research breakthroughs, social and economic issues that have influenced primary producers, and the practice of animal production.
Read about topics such as:
- Genetics and genomics
- Physiology
- Endocrinology and reproduction
- Nutrition and metabolism
- Production systems
- Behaviour and wellbeing
- Technology, education and the changing face of animal production science!
Those papers which aren’t already Open Access are free to read online until 31 November 2021.
We are hiring – please feel free to share these opportunities with anyone who might be interested:
Join our Data61 team
Data61 is the dedicated data and digital arm of Australia's national science agency and we're looking for more bright minds to join our team.
We're hiring talented researchers and engineers at all levels:
- Computer vision
- Cybersecurity
- Design thinking/UX
- Industry 4.0
- Machine Learning
- Natural hazards analytics
- Natural language processing
- Robotics
- Software engineering and Software engineering for AI
Director, National AI Centre
As part of the Commonwealth Government’s AI Action Plan, funding has been identified to support the establishment of a National Artificial Intelligence Centre (NAIC) in Australia, to be established and operated by CSIRO, through its Data61 business unit, for four years from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2025.
The Centre Director will be a thought leader in AI, an expert communicator able to bring together an ecosystem of stakeholders including universities, SMEs, large corporates, state and federal government. The Centre Director will also lead fund-raising efforts for the Centre and will be expected to bring in investment from industry and other sources.
Senior Research Engineer - Hydrogen Systems Integration
CSIRO is seeking to recruit a Research Engineer with experience in the development, integration and demonstration of hydrogen processes and technologies to join our hydrogen research group. Working as part of CSIRO’s Hydrogen Industry Mission, you will join our Energy Business Unit which has a strategic focus on delivering research and development to support Australia’s Energy transition to net zero emissions.
Check out our other career opportunities
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