DARE CENTRE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Program Director, Information Management at the Western Australia Biodiversity Science Institute
Chris Gentle is currently the Program Director, Information Management at the Western Australia Biodiversity Science Institute. Chris has over twenty years' experience consulting at a strategic level within the information management industry for natural resources and government sectors. He has specialised knowledge in developing and implementing location-intelligence strategies and leading ICT strategy and implementation planning for resource infrastructure capital projects. Chris has a focus on customer outcomes with his multi-disciplinary expertise gained through years of working in the data management and systems as well as the engineering services industry.
Chris holds a Bachelor of Science from The University of Western Australia, a Graduate Diploma in Technology Management and an M.B.A. from La Trobe University.
Elisabetta is a principal research scientist and is currently responsible for shaping the Bureau of Meteorology's Hydrology Science Section and with integrating hydrology in a whole of Earth System Modelling.
In her previous role, as Groundwater Manager, she was charged with creating a vision and strategy for the Bureau's role in the groundwater information arena and ensuring widespread access to nationally consistent groundwater information. This led to the Bureau awarding her the Excellence Award for outstanding dedication, commitment and performance in leading the Bureau's groundwater information efforts. Elisabetta believes that transparent, timely and high-quality information supported by strategically focused research improves decision-making about our water resources and creates a sustainable environment.
Previously she was a physical limnologist at the Institute for Ecosystem Studies - Italian National Research Council - studying the effects of climate change on deep lakes' heat content. Elisabetta holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Hydrogeochemistry. She is a member of the National Groundwater Sub Committee and a Fellow of the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust.
Job Titles:
- Partner Investigator
- Principal Data Scientist at QuantumBlack
George Mathews is a Principal Data Scientist at QuantumBlack and McKinsey & Company. He has significant expertise in machine learning, Bayesian statistics, optimisation and control theory. At QuantumBlack he leads data science teams solving challenging real world problems across: mining and mineral processing, oil and gas, banking, telecommunications, retail, and others.
He has extensive experience in research and development organisations, spanning private and public sectors. He has previously worked at Data61 and NICTA in Australia and BAE Systems in the United Kingdom where he led data science and advanced analytics efforts in transport, environmental modelling, water distribution networks, electricity networks, robotics, intelligence and aerospace sectors.
Over the last three decades Dr Kelly has been working in environmental programs for management, regulation and policy. Georgina has practiced and led science for large, regionally dispersed divisions and programs with a focus on evidence-based decisions in natural resources, climate, agriculture, forestry and mining. Her career has focused on Government environmental management and research agencies, including National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Environment Protection Authority, Sydney Water, Forestry Corporation NSW, the Department of Primary Industries (Agriculture), and the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Georgina has both a passion for, and expertise in, natural resource research and science leadership. She has been appointed to more than 30 national committees and senior representative roles and is acknowledged for her broad experience in environmental management, legislation, regulation and policy.
Georgina currently leads the Science, Economics and Insights Division, and provides leadership and direction in the delivery of environmental science, natural resources science, economic and socio-economic services and strategic analyses to underpin the development of policy, implementation of environmental programs and the achievement of environmental regulatory, management and advisory responsibilities. She also leads on acquisition, synthesis and delivery of environmental data, information and knowledge to government and non-government stakeholders and the public. Using rigorous science and economics the Division works to Understand NSW- Together and delivers tangible outcomes for the community and the environment.
Job Titles:
- Partner Investigator
- Program Director of the Subterranean Fauna Theme
Lesley is the Program Director of the Subterranean Fauna Theme within the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI). Lesley was seconded in 2016 from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) where, as a Principal Research Scientist, she led the Biogeography Program. In her position at DBCA, she took part in a regional biological survey of the Pilbara and coordinated a major survey of the Kimberley islands as well as several other smaller-scale surveys in various parts of the state. Lesley has now returned to DBCA as the Leader of the Animal Science Program, remaining with WABSI in a part-time capacity. Lesley's research is all focused on providing scientific advice to inform conservation management of Western Australia's unique biodiversity.
Job Titles:
- Partner Investigator
- Water Quality Programs Manager at WaterNSW
Dr Lisa Hamilton is the Water Quality Programs Manager at WaterNSW with a breadth of applied research experience across the water industry including water quality in catchments, wastewater treatment and potable distribution systems. Lisa manages a team of scientists responsible for delivering WaterNSW's Science Program, undertaking research in priority areas such as Catchment Resilience and Integrated Water Management.
Lisa's specialisation is water quality research and she has experience in the evaluation of water quality improvements derived from catchment infrastructure projects, evaluating pathogen removal from wastewater and evaluating natural processes and advanced techniques for monitoring source water quality. Lisa has also undertaken research on discoloured water in drinking water distribution systems in Australia and the Netherlands.
Lisa has a Bachelor of Science with first class honours from Griffith University and a PhD from University of Technology Sydney. Her PhD research was applied ecotoxicological assessment to wastewater treatment removal efficacy of endocrine disrupting chemical. This involved the use of in vitro and in vivo bioassay's to demonstrate where treatment removed bioactive chemicals from the wastewater stream.
Job Titles:
- Montréal
- Partner Investigator
Milan is currently a Partner in McKinsey's office in Melbourne leading advanced analytics in heavy industry for QuantumBlack and McKinsey globally.
Milan has a deep expertise in data science and chemical engineering with 20 years of experience in the process industries with emphasis on predictive analytics, process optimisation and process control. He is also leading collaboration with Universities and is an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Sydney (Centre for advanced data science).
Prior to joining McKinsey, Milan was a head of development and implementation of automation systems combining state-of-the-art process control technologies with advanced analytics.
Milan received his PhD from the department of chemical engineering at The University of Montréal with his thesis focusing on developing innovative technology that assists industries with transforming their data into actionable insights and deep operational intelligence. He also holds MSc and BS in chemical engineering (data-driven modelling) from the University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia).
Job Titles:
- UNSW ) DSc ( UQ ), MD Honoris Causa ( UQ ), FTSE FRACP FAHMS FAICD FRSN
Dr Susan Pond AM, FRSN FTSE FAHMS is an experienced leader in business & academia, recognised for her national & international contributions in science, technology and medicine. Currently, she serves as Chair of the New South Wales Smart Sensing Network, Vice-President of the Royal Society of NSW, Governor in Council Member of the Queensland University of Technology, Non-Executive Director of the Trusted Autonomous Systems for Defence Cooperative Research Centre, Biotron Limited, Vectus Biosystems Limited, Cannatrek Limited and the Australian Phenomics Network, and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering & Information Technologies at The University of Sydney. Most recently, Dr Pond was Director of Sydney Nano, a multidisciplinary institution at The University of Sydney from 2017-2018.
Tristan has a Bachelor of Engineering from the Ecole Centrale in France in 2003, a Bachelor of Science from the University of Aix Marseille and Honours (First Class) in Physical Oceanography. He completed a PhD in Geophysics at the University of Bordeaux in 2006. He joined CSIRO as a post-doctoral fellow for 2 years in 2007 to work on the Wealth from Ocean flagship before becoming a research scientist for 6 years at the Australian Resources Research Centre.
He moved to the University of Sydney in 2015 and since then he has worked on a diverse range of projects related to Earth surface processes.
His research areas revolve around sediment transport and sedimentary systems, geodynamic and landscape evolution, carbonate platforms, and ocean dynamics.
His main activities consist in the design and implementation of open-source numerical codes that improve our understanding of the complex interactions between sedimentary systems, climatic forcing, and the physical processes that erode, transport, and deposit sediments.
Tristan has extensive experience in industry collaboration and translating academic research output into industrial applications. He is currently involved in the Basin Genesis Hub Industrial Transformation Training Centre in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, ANU, Curtin and Caltech and partners from Geoscience Australia, OilSearch, Chevron and Equinor.
He is also chief investigator in a linkage grant led by the University of WA on the evolution of rift basins including Monash University, the Geological Survey of WA, CSIRO and BHP Billiton, Independence Group and Anglo American.
Gavin is a transformational technology leader with over 25 years of experience in the IT industry, holding senior roles in the Mining, Infrastructure, and Retail sectors. He has a long history in innovating with technology and creating significant value for his employers. In his most recent role as the Chief Information Officer at Newcrest Mining, Gavin and his team built a set of industry leading IT and Digital capabilities that were applied to improve safety and profitability at Newcrest. These include the award-winning AI, IoT, Newcrest Crowd, and SAP Cloud platforms.
Glenda Wardle has PhD and MS degrees in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago (USA). Her research training began in New Zealand with a BSc in Botany and an MSc (First Class Honours) in Ecology from the University of Auckland. After Chicago, Glenda moved to Australia to take up an academic position at the University of Sydney, where she is currently a Professor of Ecology and Evolution.
Glenda co-leads the Desert Ecology Research Group (DERG), well known for their long-term field research in arid Australia studying the dynamics of populations, species and ecological interactions to improve conservation and management of ecosystems, particularly deserts. Glenda's broad interests in statistics and modelling include Bayesian multivariate auto-regressive state space models for time-series data, matrix population models, network analysis, uncertainty in spatio-temporal models, and near-term ecological forecasting.
Her current research projects use a wide range of data sources, such as high resolution genomic data to understand how dynamic ecological change may cause rapid evolution, remote sensing satellite data to track vegetation response to fire, droughts and flooding rains, and wildlife camera images and acoustic data to quantify how biodiversity on farms can be integrated into production systems.
She provides expert advice to several projects for the Australian Government Department of Environment and Energy, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, and NGOs such as Bush Heritage Australia and the Central Land Council and is an internationally renowned expert advising several global projects.
Job Titles:
- Senior Project & Communications Officer
Lucy Marshall is Executive Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering at Macquarie University in Sydney.
Lucy received her Bachelor of Civil Engineering in 2001, Master of Engineering Science in 2002 and her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2006, all from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney.
From 2006-2013 she was Associate Professor of Watershed Analysis at Montana State University, working at the interface of engineering and environmental science in quantifying uncertainty in hydrologic and environmental systems.
Following this she was Director of the Water Research Centre in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Dean of Engineering (Equity and Diversity) at UNSW.
Lucy's technical expertise is in hydrologic modelling, model optimisation, and quantification of uncertainty in water resources analysis. Lucy is an expert in Monte Carlo methods, Bayesian inference, and associated methodologies aimed at improved uncertainty analysis of water resources modelling and the assessment of uncertainty in water resources.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Western Australian Fellow at the Centre for Exploration Targeting
Mark Jessell is a Professor and Western Australian Fellow at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at The University of Western Australia. Mark studied up to MSc level in the UK, then moved to the USA to do a PhD, went to Melbourne to do a Postdoc and take up a teaching and research position at Monash University before moving to Toulouse, France taking up a position with the Institute de Recherche pour le Developpement, before joining the University of Western Australia in 2013.
Job Titles:
- Network Manager
- Chief Operating Officer of the NSW Smart Sensing Network
- Master of Arts, International Relations
Nicholas Haskins is Chief Operating Officer of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN). Joining the network in May 2018, he is responsible for implementing strategy, driving growth and managing the overall operations of the network.
Nicholas is an experienced network manager and was formerly General Manager of the Worldwide Universities Network - a global consortium of leading research universities. Prior to that he served as International Networks Manager at the University of Sydney, where he designed and operationalised the university's global networks strategy.
Over a 20 year career that spans roles at UNSW, The University of Sydney and UTS, Nicholas brings to the NSSN an in-depth understanding of the NSW higher education and research landscape, and finely attuned skills in university administration, stakeholder engagement, communications and research development.
Job Titles:
- DARE PhD Student at University of Sydney
Rajitha Athukorala is a DARE PhD student at University of Sydney joining from 2021. He has worked as a Research Associate at Geoinformatics Center (GIC), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Thailand focusing on remotes sensing and GIS applications for real world problems.
Rajitha has past involvements in projects related to climate projection, modelling, and downscaling, multi hazard risk assessment, and mapping with drones in several countries of central and southeast Asia.
He has also involved in several capacity building programs as a technical lead in remote sensing and GIS applications in agriculture, disaster risk management, and drone image processing for participants from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Thailand, Laos, and Tajikistan. He is also an Associate member of Institution of Engineers (IESL), Sri Lanka.
Rajitha is also fluent in Sinhala and has translated his bio to celebrate DARE's cultural diversity.