Barbara Ainsworth is the Curator of the Monash Museum of Computing History (MMoCH), located within the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. Barbara completed a Masters in Public History at Monash University and has been the Curator at the MMoCH since 2006. In this role, she cares for the Museum's physical collection and researches aspects of the history of computing at Monash University. Barbara co-authored 'The Relevance of Computing Research History - The Monads-PC: A Case Study' (2013), co-authored 'Computer History on the Move' (2016), and wrote a short biography of Trevor Pearcey for the UK's Computer Conservation Society Journal (2014). Barbara is the chosen biographer for Pearcey's forthcoming entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Dr Lamiae Azizi is a Senior Lecturer at the school of Maths and Stats at the University of Sydney. She holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Joseph Fourier University (France) and the French national research institute for the digital sciences (INRIA). Before joining the University of Sydney, she held the position of senior statistician at the MRC-University of Cambridge (UK). Her research focuses on solving physical world problems with Probabilistic Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence.
Jo Burston is one of Australia's most successful female entrepreneurs. She has launched six businesses, the standout being Job Capital, which went from $0 to $40-million turnover in five years and has kept her on the list of Australia's top 30 female entrepreneurs since 2013. Jo has worked in partnership with the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) and Office For Women (OFW) as well as global brands such as Microsoft, Google, EY, PwC and XERO. Her most recent launch is www.startup.business which runs entrepreneurial Learning in Action programs for school-aged children both in curriculum and as school holiday programs in every state and territory in Australia. Jo is passionate about the idea that you can't be what you can't see and uses these programs, as well as her globally recognised social impact business Inspiring Rare Birds, to inspire, support and educate entrepreneurs with the goal of giving every woman the opportunity to be an entrepreneur by choice.
Hugh Durrant-Whyte is the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer. From 2016-18, he was Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence. From 2014-16 and from 2002-2010, he was a Professor and ARC Federation Fellow at the University of Sydney. From 2010-2014, he was CEO of National ICT Australia (NICTA), and from 1995-2010 Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems and of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR). Hugh is a world-leading authority on machine learning and robotics, and its application in areas including cargo handling, mining and defence. He has published over 300 research papers, graduated over 70 PhD students, and has won numerous awards and prizes for his work, including being named 2010 NSW Scientist of the Year. In his career he has worked with many major companies, has co-founded three successful start-up companies, and has won many awards including being named 2008 Engineers Australia NSW Engineer of the Year. He is particularly well known for his work with Patrick in delivering the automated container terminals in Brisbane and Port Botany, and for his work with Rio Tinto in pioneering the delivering the automated "Mine of the Future". He is an honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia (HonFIEAus), a Fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS).
Andrew Dzurak is one of world's leading experts in silicon-based quantum computing. He is a Scientia Professor at UNSW-Australia, and is Director of ANFF-NSW (www.anff-nsw.org), the NSW node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility. Following a PhD in Cambridge in 1993, Andrew was a key participant in the establishment of the ARC Centre for Quantum Computer Technology by Professor Bob Clark, which now maintains the world's largest focused collaboration on silicon-based quantum computing. Andrew, with colleague Andrea Morello, demonstrated the world's first silicon quantum bits (qubits) in 2012, and more recently developed a new qubit technology by reconfiguring the ubiquitous CMOS transistors that make up all of today's silicon processor chips. He leads a team at UNSW focused on the development of a quantum processor that can be manufactured using CMOS technology which is funded by the US Army Research Office, the Australian Research Council, and the company Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd. He has published well over 100 scientific papers including 13 papers in Science and Nature group journals, and is co-inventor on 11 patent families. Andrew received the 2011 Australian Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, and his silicon qubit work was selected by Physics World, UK as one of the world's Top Ten Scientific Breakthroughs for 2015.
Professor Benjamin Eggleton is the Director of The University of Sydney Nano Institute. He also currently serves as Co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN). Eggleton was the Founding Director of the Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS) at The University of Sydney and served as its Director from 2009-2018. He was previously an ARC Laureate Fellow and has been named an ARC Federation Fellow twice. He was also Founding Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) from 2003-2017.
Dr Koribalski obtained her PhD at the University of Bonn in Germany.
She was awarded the Max-Planck Society's Otto-Hahn Medal for her research done in collaboration with colleagues at the neighboring Max-Plank-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR).
In July 1993 she joined CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), now part of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, as a postdoctoral fellow.
Dr Koribalski now leads the HI team at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) and mentors numerous postdoctoral fellows and PhD students based at a range of Australian and international universities.
Dr Koribalski was also for many years the coordinator of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science's graduate student program and project leader for the ATCA 3mm receiver upgrade enabled through the Major National Research Funding (MNRF) program.
Dr Sarah Pearce joined CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) as Deputy Chief in February 2011. Prior to this role, she was Project Manager for GridPP, the UK computing grid for particle physics. Sarah's previous experience includes time as a science advisor in the UK Parliament.
Sarah holds a PhD in X-ray astronomy from the University of Leicester and an undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Oxford (Worcester College).
She is currently the Deputy Director of CASS, where she chairs the CASS Executive. Sarah has particular responsibility for CSIRO's role in the Square Kilometre Array project, and manages the CSIRO SKA Centre that coordinates CSIRO SKA activities. She has been Australian Science Director on the SKA Board, and part of the negotiating team for the SKA Convention.
Sarah also leads CASS's new Space Research Programme. This includes the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation, which coordinates activity in EO across CSIRO and manages CSIRO's share of our new national facility, the NovaSAR satellite.
Professor David J. Reilly holds a joint position with Microsoft Corporation and the University of Sydney, where he is the Director of Microsoft Quantum, Sydney, a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence, Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS), and a Professor in the School of Physics. The focus of much of Reilly's work is at the quantum-classical interface and the scale-up of quantum technology. As a leader in Microsoft's quantum effort he bridges the gap between fundamental quantum physics and the engineering approaches needed to scale quantum devices into quantum machines. He is also interested in applying quantum tech in biomedicine, pioneering new approaches to magnetic resonance imaging using nanodiamonds. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, Reilly was a postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University (USA) and has held a Fellowship from Hewlett-Packard. He was born in Sydney Australia.
Dr Williams leads the data-focused research, development and digital capability of CSIRO, and is a member of the Executive Team. He has stewardship of a range of business lines and national facilities including Astronomy and Space Science, the Australia Telescope National Facility, Marine National Facility, Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Australian Collections, Information, Management and Technology and Data 61.
Prior to joining CSIRO in 2014, Dr Williams was Chairman of the European Space Agency (ESA), leading the 20-nation council executive body that oversaw the ESA. During this same period Dr Williams was also Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Space Agency responsible for developing the strategic vision for UK space, securing bilateral arrangements with various countries, and establishing national facilities in Harwell, England.
During 2005 - 2010 he served as Director General of the UKSA's forerunner body, the British National Space Centre (BNSC), where he transitioned the National Space Centre into an agency structure, and was Head of the UK Delegation to ESA.
His earlier experience includes 10 years as Head of Strategy and International Relations with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and work with the UK Natural Environment Research Council, industry and academia.
Dr Williams holds BSc degree and a PhD from the University of Reading, served as a Member of the Global Climate Observing Committee, was elected Member of the International Academy for Astronautics in 2012, and is now a non-executive director of AARNET.