Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley AO PSM
Dr Foley became Australia’s ninth Chief Scientist in January 2021 after a lengthy career at Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO, where she was appointed as the agency’s Chief Scientist in August 2018.
While working at CSIRO, Dr Foley made significant contributions to the understanding of nitride semiconductors and superconducting electronics. Dr Foley and her team’s most successful application is the LANDTEM sensor system used to locate valuable deposits of minerals deep underground, such as nickel sulphide, silver and gold.
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, being named an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2020 for service to research science and the advancement of women in physics, receiving the Clunies Ross Medal of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in 2015, and receiving the Australian Institute of Physics Medal for Outstanding Service to Physics in 2016. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in 2008.
Dr Foley’s previous roles include membership 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 a council member for Questacon.
Dr Foley is committed to helping Australia realise the transformative potential of critical technologies and meet the climate challenge. She is an inspiration to women in STEM across the globe and focused strongly on equality and diversity in the science sector.
Professor Christopher James Pettit
Chris Pettit is the Director of the City Futures Research Centre, inaugural professor of Urban Science, and Plus Alliance Fellow at UNSW Sydney. He currently Chair of the Board of Directors for CUPUM (Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management) and on the International Advisory Board for the “Geo for all” initiative. He is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia’s National Plantech Wrking Group, the advisory board for the Centre for Data Leadership, the Committee for Sydney’s Smart Cities Taskforce and the NSW Government Expert Advisory Group for Planning Evidence and Insights.
Prof Pettit’s expertise is in the convergence of the fields of city planning and digital technologies including Geographical Information Sciences (GIS). He has given numerous keynote addresses at conferences around the world, is on the editorial board for a number of journals and has published over 200 academic papers. For the last 25 years, he has been undertaking research and development in the use of digital planning tools to support a data-driven approach to geodesigning future city scenarios. His research expertise also spans into understanding the utility and usability of geographical visualization tools including, advanced spatial decision support systems and city dashboards.
Biosketch of Jaeseung Jeong, Ph.D
Professor Jaeseung Jeong is currently a professor (and head) at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Head of Graduate School of Transdisciplinary studies in KAIST (Daejeon, South Korea). He received Ph.D. from Department of Physics in KAIST. He has previously worked as a postdoc associate at the Department of Child Psychiatry, School of Medicine in Yale University (New Haven, USA) and as an assistant professor at the Department of Child Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons in Columbia University (New York, USA).
His research topics include brain dynamics of decision-making, computational modeling of neuropsychiatric disorders including depression, addiction, and dementia, Brain-Robot Interface (BRI), and Brain-inspired Artificial Intelligence. He was selected as one of ‘Young Global Leaders’ from World Economic Forum (WEF a.k.a. Davos Forum) in 2009 and received several awards from scientific communities. He has been publishing more than 100 research articles in Nature, Nature medicine, Nature Communications etc
Chair of Information and Interaction Design, Younah Kang, Ph.D
Younah Kang is an associate professor of Underwood International College at Yonsei University. Her research interests are in human-computer interaction and user experience design, with a specific focus on emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and VR/AR. Prior to Yonsei University, she worked as a user experience researcher at Google Mountain View. Kang received her PhD in Human-Centered Computing from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MS in Information from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. She received a BS in Industrial Design from KAIST.
