From our Director
Interesting problems no longer lie within disciplinary silos – real innovation comes when you work across boundaries and this is encouraged and celebrated at CSIRO.
Digital technologies have never been more relevant than they are now. Across the globe, technologies, including AI are transforming our daily lives, and presenting new opportunities to solve previously intractable problems.
We are using digital technologies to help tackle real world challenges from bushfire management to boosting agricultural productivity, from improving cybersecurity to protecting our environments including the Great Barrier Reef.
If you want your research to have a meaningful impact on people’s lives, then CSIRO is your kind of place and we’d love to talk with you about a future at CSIRO’s Data61.
Professor Jon Whittle, Director CSIRO's Data61
Meet some of our team
Hear from some of our team on why they work at Data61, and why you should consider joining us at the dedicated data and digital arm of Australia's national science agency.
[Image appears of Jon Whittle talking to the camera and text appears: Jon Whittle, Director, CSIRO’s Data61]
John Whittle: Data61 is the digital technologies and data sciences arm of CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency. We’re actually in a growth phase and we’re opening up a significant number of new scientist and engineer roles and it would be great if you would consider joining us.
[Image changes to show Toby Walsh talking to the camera and text appears: Toby Walsh, Adjunct Science Fellow, Data61]
Toby Walsh: Why should you apply for a role at Data61?
[Images move through of a close view of a quadruped, the legs of the quadruped, the top of the quadruped, and a person holding a handle on the top of the quadruped and guiding it]
If you’re interested in anything digital, and I have to say that the world is becoming increasingly digital and the exciting opportunities in our world are increasingly connected with digital, then Data61 is undoubtedly the best place in Australia, one of the best places actually in the world to go and explore all digital.
[Image changes to show Sherry Xu talking to the camera]
Sherry Xu: I did my PhD with Data61 and I continued working with my PhD supervisor after I graduated.
[Images move through to show a digital image of an ACE2 protein, a room set up with cameras, a male wearing goggles, two males looking at a 3D object, and a digital image of the object]
Compared with universities, I think Data61 is more impact oriented and that we are applying our research in igniting a research field, data of AI or machine learning, and blockchain.
[Image changes to show Sally Cripps talking to the camera and text appears: Sally Cripps, Research Director, CSIRO’s Data61]
Sally Cripps: It’s unique in Australia in the sense that it brings together all aspects of data science and artificial intelligence and machine learning.
[Images move through of data images of a map, a 3D printer infill pattern, and a 3D printer at work]
Jeremy Howard: I really hope that people will consider applying for a role at Data61 because it separates those who work with some of the best people in Australia, and you’ll find that when you’re working with the best people you’re doing your best work as well.
[Image changes to show Jeremy Howard talking to the camera and text appears: Jeremy Howard, Adjunct Science Fellow, CSIRO’s Data61]
And it could be an opportunity to get a really great combination of both deep interesting technical work at a research level, but also all the really interesting details you have to get right to apply that work to actual practical problems.
[Image changes to show Sherry talking to the camera]
Sherry Xu: Data61 is also family friendly, seeking to accommodate the demands of people having different family, and the personal commitments in their lives.
[Image changes to show Jeremy talking to the camera]
Jeremy Howard: It’s about doing breakthrough work, but not generally just for its own sake. It’s about doing breakthrough work in a way that can be applied to actually solving a list of problems.
[Image changes to show Sally talking to the camera]
Sally Cripps: And it is that whole approach to, right from the inception of the new mathematics through to the new algorithmic development, all the way through to actually delivering it as an app that can exist on somebody’s phone. All of that happens within Data61 and I think that that makes Data61 unique in Australia, and probably pretty unique in the world.
[Image changes to show Jon talking to the camera again]
Jon Whittle: I’ve worked in lots of different places in my career. I’ve worked in government research agencies. I’ve worked with industry, and I’ve worked in universities, but I came to CSIRO’s Data61 because I think that it’s unique in its ability to have that national impact. We don’t stop doing research once we’ve published papers. We don’t stop until we put real solutions into the hands of real people. And that’s why I came to CSIRO.
[Music plays and the CSIRO and Data61 logos and text appears: CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency]