Event Details

Margaret Shepherd is currently President of the Science Teachers Association NSW and has worked for 6 years as Science Adviser at Sydney Catholic Schools. Her expertise is in the field of adult learning, working with teachers to support professional learning in areas of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. She is also the lecturer in charge of Science Curriculum and Teaching at The Australian Catholic University supporting pre-service science teachers. She is very passionate about using inquiry in the classroom, assessment for learning, feedback, PEEL and engaging students in their learning. Margaret is a long standing member of Council, having been involved since 2001 working in a range of positions including Councillor, Secretary, Vice-President and Treasurer and President.

Rowena Welsh is a Dharrawhal woman born on Gadigal land. She’s a proud member of both the Redfern and La Perouse Aboriginal communities bloodline links to Gadigal, Bidjigal, Gweagal, Wangal and other Sydney basin clans. Her maternal grandmother is from the Timbery family of the La Perouse community. In 2012, Rowena graduated from the University of Technology Sydney with a BA in Community Management and Adult Education. She continues to work in her community in various roles and has a major passion for Aboriginal women’s cultural empowerment. She is currently enrolled in a graduate Diploma of Local, Family and Applied History at the University of New England.

The Hon. Sarah Mitchell is the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning and member of the Nationals. Since entering parliament in 2011, Sarah has served on numerous committees, as Parliamentary Secretary for Regional and Rural Health and Western NSW and in 2017 appointed the Minister for Early Childhood Learning, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Assistant Minister for Education.

Sarah is the youngest Member of the Legislative Council and the Leader of the NSW Nationals in the Upper House.

As a long-time Western Sydney local, representing the suburbs of Sydney has always been Prue’s Number 1 priority. Prue served as a Councillor on Penrith City Council before being first elected as the Member for Londonderry at the 2015 election. Having been elected Deputy Leader of NSW Labor in 2021, Prue is proud to be part of NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns’ team, developing a positive vision for the future of NSW. As the Shadow Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Prue is committed to ensuring NSW has a strong and well supported teaching profession. Prue wants to ensure every child in every school gets a world-class education.

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte is the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer and Natural Resources Commissioner. Hugh is a world-leading authority on machine learning and robotics, and applications 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 and 2008 Engineers Australia NSW Engineer of the Year.

In his career he has worked with many major companies and has co-founded three successful start-up companies. 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 and 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 Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS).

Aunty Joanne Selfe is a Gadigal woman born in Sydney. A founding member of Warringa Baiya (the NSW Aboriginal Women’s Legal Service) she sat on the Youth Koori Court as an Elder for a number of years. Joanne has extensive experience working across the public sector, private enterprise, community-based organisations and higher education working in areas as diverse as health, women, information technology, sport, economic development, criminal, social and economic justice. She was the first Aboriginal Director of the Indigenous Services Unit in Corrective Services (NSW), in the mid 1990’s, Deputy Chair of the NSW State Reconciliation Committee (1995-2000) and Chair of the Reconciliation Events Committee (1999-2000) Corroboree 2000.Today, Aunty Joanne works on the NSW Judicial Commission’s Ngara Yura program. The Ngara Yura program was developed in 1990’s as a response to the final recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody that judicial officers should receive instruction and education on matters relating to Aboriginal customs, culture, traditions and society. Aunty Joanne grew up with the stories of the night sky carried by her mother, Elders and Community Knowledge Holders. She works with the Museum of Applied Art and Sciences on the development and delivery of the Australian Indigenous Astronomy program.In her spare time, she continues to work with young people in her community sharing the very knowledge systems and skills, she learnt from her mother, Elders and community knowledge holders, she is also a master grass weaver, a cultural practitioner.

Sarah is a Phd student in the Replication and Genome Stability Lab at Garvan. She is studying how cellular abnormalities could contribute to the development of therapeutic resistant in breast cancer. Sarah's work has won many awards at Garvan and she is passionate about the need to identify and develop novel therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Susan Clark FAA is Leader of the Genomics and Epigenetics Research Theme and Head of the Epigenetics Research Lab at Garvan

Professor Clark is a worldwide pioneer of epigenetics - the study of the additional layer of instructions on DNA that organises and regulates gene activity. Her search has helped revolutionise the field through new technologies that profile DNA changes in early development and cancer, and has laid the groundwork for using epigenetics to detect and monitor cancer progression.

Associate Professor Elissa Deenick is Head of the Lymphocyte Signalling and Activation Laboratory at Garvan. Her research is focused on lymphocyte activation and differentiation, and how this is controlled to ensure protection against infection while avoiding harmful immune responses like allergy and autoimmunity.

Matthew Connell is currently the Acting Director of Curatorial, Collections and Exhibitions but he has been a curator at the Powerhouse since 1991 working in the fields of computing and mathematics, information technologies, physical science and engineering. Before becoming a curator, he studied physics and mathematics and worked in exploration geophysics and microelectronics research. Matthew’s research and curatorial interests include computing history, mathematics history, media art and design, interaction design, STEM education and learning, and curatorship. He has curated and co-curated several exhibitions at the museum, most recently Out of Hand: Materialising the Digital in 2016 which examined the industrial and cultural implications of digital manufacturing technologies; and in 2017, The Mabo Decision 25th Anniversary. He currently a partner investigator in a research project exploring interactive immersive systems. Matthew is an Adjunct Professor at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research at University of New South Wales.

Dr Sarah Reeves is science curator at the Powerhouse Museum, focusing on the areas of astronomy and space. Sarah holds a PhD in Astronomy and for her thesis she studied the evolution of galaxies using radio telescopes like 'The Dish'. Before joining the Powerhouse, worked for several years as an astronomy guide at Sydney Observatory. At the Powerhouse she has co-curated a wide range of science exhibitions, and in 2019 curated the highly successful Apollo 11 exhibition, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. Sarah is passionate about sharing her knowledge about science and technology with the public through the Museum's collection and exhibitions.

Nina Earl is a curator and science communicator who works at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. She holds a Master’s of Science Communication and has extensive experience in STEM education and community outreach. As a curator she works across the Museum’s science collections with a focus on managing the health and medical collection. Her recent work involves the delivery of many successful cross-disciplinary exhibitions, such as Linear in 2019 and Design for Life in 2020. She is particularly interested in how interdisciplinary exhibitions can help new audiences access complex scientific information and build trust in the research process.

PROFESSOR FRED WATSON is Australia’s first Astronomer-at-Large in the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. He is a graduate of the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, and worked at both of Britain’s Royal Observatories before joining the Australian Astronomical Observatory as Astronomer-in-Charge in 1995.

Recognised internationally for helping to pioneer the use of fibre optics in astronomy during the 1980s, Fred is best known today for his award-winning radio and TV broadcasts, books, music, dark-sky advocacy and co-hosting the Space Nuts podcast. He holds adjunct professorships in several Australian universities, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2010. He has an asteroid named after him (5691 Fredwatson), but says that if it hits the Earth, it won't be his fault. Fred’s latest book is Cosmic Chronicles – a user’s guide to the Universe, published by NewSouth Press in October 2019.

Dr Foley commenced as Australia’s ninth Chief Scientist in January 2021. Dr Foley was appointed to the role after a lengthy career at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO; she was appointed as the agency’s Chief Scientist in August 2018, the second woman to hold that role.

Dr Foley’s career in physics began with her PhD at Macquarie University on the semiconductor indium nitride. She and her colleagues were one of the first groups to carry out pioneering research that examined the properties of indium nitride in light-sensitive devices, the best-known application being white light emitting diodes used for household low energy lighting. Dr Foley’s scientific excellence and influential leadership have been recognised with numerous awards and fellowships, including being elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2020, along with an Order of Australia for service to research science and to the advancement of women in physics. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in 2008 and was elected as an honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics in 2019.

Dr Foley has a passion for advancing scientific research and has held various roles, including member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, President of the Australian Institute of Physics, President of Science and Technology Australia, Editor-in-Chief of Superconductor Science and Technology journal and Council Member for Questacon.

Dr Foley is an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe and is committed to tackling gender equality and diversity in the science sector. Throughout her career she has strived to create an environment that embraces the full human potential of both men and women for wellbeing and economic benefit and for equality.

Professor Kristofer M. Helgen is Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI), as of June 2020. As Chief Scientist and Director, he is responsible for the AMRI team of more than 80 staff, including research scientists, collection scientists, collection officers and more than 100 associates, fellows and students, who research and explore the natural world.

Helgen was most recently Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide. He has focused his research primarily on fieldwork with living animals and research in museum collections to document the richness of life, understand global change, and contribute to important problems in biomedicine. Originally from Minnesota, Helgen gained his undergraduate degree in Biology at Harvard University and his Ph.D. in Zoology as a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Adelaide. From 2008-2017 he served as Curator-in-Charge of Mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

A favourite in Australian science

A master of all trades, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is a qualified scientist, doctor and engineer whose fun-loving personality led him to become a well-known author and science communicator.

In addition to his degrees in Physics and Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine and Surgery, he has studied several non-degree years at various universities in Astrophysics, Computer Science and Philosophy. He speaks at secondary and tertiary institutions, and corporate events.

In the media, he was a writer and presenter for the first series of ‘Quantum’, and has been a science commentator on TV ever since. In radio, he speaks on-air for about five hours every week. This includes a national weekly, one-hour science talkback show on triple J – attracting over 750, 000 listeners in the five mainland capitals. The ABC, triple J and weekly ‘Great Moments in Science’ podcasts together have 4.5 million downloads a year.

Dr Karl has won a number of prestigious and unique awards throughout his career, including Australian Apple Masters, Ig Nobel prize awarded by Harvard University in the USA, Australian Father of the Year, Member of the Order of Australia Award, Skeptic Of The Year Prize and in 2012 Karl was delighted to have Asteroid 18412 named after him. Asteroid Dr Karl/18412 was discovered by Robert H. McNaught.

Phoebe Meagher works as a Wildlife Conservation Officer at Taronga Conservation Society Australia in Sydney. As a conservation biologist, she manages recovery programs as well as population management for native mammals and aquatic animals. Phoebe also undertakes research into threatened species and how best to protect them from illegal wildlife trading, marine debris pollution, and other threats. Phoebe leads the way forward in the emerging field of conservation forensics. Her recent groundbreaking work was accepted for publication and subsequently received media attention, including an Australian Geographic cover story.

Sam Riggall is Chief Executive Officer of Sunrise Energy Metals Ltd, an ASX-listed company focused on development of Australia’s largest base metals project - the Sunrise Battery Materials Complex in central NSW. Once built, Sunrise will be one of the world’s largest integrated battery material plants and establish Australia as a key supplier into global electric vehicle supply chains. Sam is also a director of VRB Energy, a global leader in vanadium redox flow battery technology.

Sunrise Energy Metals is a world leader in hydrometallurgy, employing ion exchange technologies to selectively extract metals at extremely high efficiency. Sam brings significant insight to the impact of disruptive technologies on metals markets, and has a strong track record of identifying and building value through innovation. He is also a Steering Committee Member of the World Materials Forum, was recently appointed to the Commonwealth Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Initiative for Critical Minerals and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.

Dr Mark Ho works at ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), specialising in reactor cooling systems analysis. He’s interested in reactor design, computational fluid dynamics, coding and boiling dynamics. He supervises undergrad, masters and PhD students on the topics of advanced reactors & nuclear systems and is active in IAEA discussions on the topic of SMRs (Small Modular Reactors). Mark also serves as Vice President of the Australian Nuclear Association, a professional organisation promoting the peaceful, safe and effective use of nuclear science and technology.