Advisory Panel
Rhys Francis - IRAP Chairman
Greg Harper
Tim Littlejohn
Warren Parker
Nadia Rosenthal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhys Francis - IRAP Chairman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhys completed applied mathematics at Monash University and his Ph.D in computer science at La Trobe University and started work as a software engineer with Varian Techtron developing their first remote computer control interface for an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. He returned to La Trobe University for a ten year period, teaching and researching parallel and distributed systems, and pursued the development of a sophisticated architecture simulation system able to explore the relationship between parallel architecture features and application performance.
In 1990 Rhys moved to CSIRO to develop high-level application languages and algorithms for high performance computing. He was appointed as a Research Program Manager in 1994 and asked to establish a new research group. The new group focussed into electronic document technologies which led to many projects including: electronic record keeping in government, e-commerce in the wool industry, and resource discovery and advanced information products in the manufacturing, construction, finance and media sectors. Appointed as CSIRO's ICT Sector Leader in 2001, Rhys helped articulate the strategy for ICT research in CSIRO which led to the establishment of the CSIRO ICT Centre. He then moved to became CSIRO's Director for High Performance Scientific Computing, and has since helped evolve CSIRO's strategy in emerging e-science services.
From 2005, as the program manager for the APAC National Grid, Rhys has developed and deployed an infrastructure that provides seamless access from research desktops to many of Australia's high end computing and mass data services, and is now the NCRIS Facilitator for Platforms for Collaboration. SInce 2007 Rhys has been executive director for the Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council.
Greg Harper
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Gregory Harper is Deputy Chief, Business Development for CSIRO Livestock Industries. In this role he contributes to both the strategy and operations of this agriculturally-oriented Division. The Division has a strong track record in production animal genomics, and its application in breeding systems, and Gregory brings that experience to the Advisory Panel.
In December 2009, Gregory was elected to the Board of Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd as a non-executive Director. His recruitment reflected his tenure as manager of the Strategic Science portfolio of that company., a producer-owned company that provides services to livestock producers, processors, exporters, foodservice operators and retailers. The recruitment also reflects his broader knowledge of the Australian bioscience innovation system.
Gregory received his Bachelor of Science degree from Uni of Qld in 1980 and then his PhD in biochemistry from Monash University. He completed post doctoral fellowships in human genetics in the US, Sweden and Adelaide before joining CSIRO in Brisbane in 1992. Gregory focussed his research work in CSIRO on meat eating quality and he was part of the first, second and third Beef CRCs; he was project leader of marbling research in the second. He was also involved in the development of the MLA/AWI SheepGenomics program and the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship. The theme of his work has been the links between genetics, animal growth and nutrition, and the eating quality of meat.
Through his academic career, Gregory has published over 100 articles including book chapters, scientific papers and reviews, and he has trained nine postgraduate students. Gregory’s work was recognised in a CSIRO Award for Collaborative Excellence in 2003.
Tim Littlejohn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tim Littlejohn is the IBM New Employee Learning lead as well as a member of the IBM Australia Diversity council. Previously Tim was a member of the IBM Healthcare Life Sciences team and lead the Asia Pacific Small Business life-sciences unit.
Tim's background includes a Ph.D. and post-doctoral research in molecular genetics, assignments with international IT consultants Accenture, a period as director of Informatics at the Canadian Genome Program, and Head of the Australian National bioinformatics facility ANGIS. Most recently, Tim formed and was a director, CEO and CSO of bioinformatics companies Entigen Inc in 1998 and BioLateral Pty Ltd in 2001. He has extensive experience in commercialising bioinformatics, having raised significant investment from venture capital and government sources to accelerate the growth of the bioinformatics companies he has run.
Tim has been involved in the Australian bioinformatics and biotechnology industry for many years. His industry activities included serving on the editorial board of the IDG journal Australian Biotechnology News, leading the Australian Federal Government’s Bioinformatics Industry Opportunity Taskforce, and through participation in many industry development activities including an active membership in AusBiotech, the Peak Biotechnology Industry body in Australia, where he was a co-founder and is chair of the national peak bioinformatics body, “Bioinformatics Australia”.
Warren Parker
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warren Parker is CEO (from July 05) of Landcare Research Ltd., a New Zealand Crown Research Institute focussed on the management of terrestrial ecosystems and sustainable development. The company has 400 staff based at nine sites and revenues of $55M this year. From mid-2004 he worked at IMBcom Pty Ltd., the commercialisation arm of the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, the University of Queensland developing trans-Tasman linkages in the biotechnology sector. Earlier he was Chief Operating Officer, AgResearch Science. He joined AgResearch in 1998, after an 18-year career at Massey University including 6-years as Professor and Head of Department for Agribusiness and Resource Management. Current directorships include Science New Zealand, Landcare Research International and Landcare research (US). Past directorships have included DEEResearch, Pastoral Genomics Ltd, The National Centre for Advanced BioProtection Technologies, Analytical Research Limited and the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre. He is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Australian Farm Institute (Sydney) and the Queensland Facility for Advanced Bioinformatics (QFAB, hosted by IMB). Warren completed a MAgrSc (Hons I) in Farm Management and PhD in Animal Science at Massey University, followed by a sabbatical with the Dairy & Animal Science Department, Penn State University in the USA. He has published over 200 papers in journals and conference proceedings mostly on farm business strategy, agricultural systems and production management and more recently on sustainable development and environmental management. He has considerable experience in international project work and is a Life Member of the South African Large Herds Conference.
Nadia Rosenthal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Born in the United States, Nadia Rosenthal was awarded a PhD in 1981 from Harvard Medical School and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. After holding academic research posts in Boston at Children’s Hospital and Boston University School of Medicine she moved to the Cardiovascular Research Center at Harvard Medical School, where she directed a biomedical research laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She co-edited the definitive text Heart Development and served for a decade on the editorial staff at the New England Journal of Medicine, where she was Consultant of Molecular Medicine and editor of the Molecular Medicine series.
Professor Rosenthal’s research focuses on developmental genetics of heart and skeletal muscle, the molecular biology of ageing and the role of growth factors and stem cells in tissue regeneration. Since her 2001 arrival in Europe to become Head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Mouse Biology Unit in Rome, she has been awarded EMBO membership, and the Ferrari-Soave Prize in Cell Biology. She has served on numerous international grant review committees, advisory panels and editorial boards and coordinates several major EU consortia on mouse genetics and disease models. She delivered last year’s Howard Hughes Holiday Lectures on Potent Biology: Stem Cells, Cloning and Regeneration. In 2005 Professor Rosenthal established a Partnership between EMBL and Imperial Collage London, where she holds a Professorship of Cardiovascular Science and co-directs of the Harefield Heart Science Centre with the world renown heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub.
As part of a longstanding relationship with the Australian research community, Professor Rosenthal is a member of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology, for whom she designed the prestigious ANZSCDB Presidents Medal. She has been a faculty member of the Australian Developmental Biology Workshop and is also a Visiting Professor at University of Western Australia. Most recently she spearheaded the election of Australia to EMBL as its first Associate Member, and was appointed Director of the newly formed Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University.
