Wednesday 29 June 2022 – 11:00 – 11:20 AEST
Dr Paul Bertsch
Dr Bertsch is the Science Director of CSIRO Land and Water. He has championed inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches that integrate land, water, ecosystems, cities, social and economic sciences, environmental contamination and toxicology, earth observation, and climate adaptation to address the grand challenges facing Australia and the global community. He has been a passionate advocate and leader in Synthetic and Advanced Engineering Biology in CSIRO and Australia more broadly. He served as Interim Queensland Chief Scientist where his primary agenda was working across government to establish strategies and infrastructure to grow an advanced biomanufacturing industry in Queensland.
Prior to joining CSIRO in 2013, Paul was the Director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment and Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, University of Kentucky, Lexington. Prior to this he was Director of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory where he is the Georgia Power Professor of Environmental Chemistry Emeritus at the University of Georgia, Athens. He currently is an Honorary Professor of Environmental and Soil Chemistry at the University of Queensland.
Paul has more than 30 years of experience in environmental and sustainability science research and development and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He is also a lifetime National Associate of the United States’ National Academy of Sciences (NAS).