Experience

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  Freehills (now fpa)

  Aug 2006 - May 2010

  Patent attorney

  Fresh out of my PhD, I began work at Freehills in 2006 and study towards registration as a patent attorney in 2007. I completed the Masters in Industrial Property course at the University of Technology Sydney in 2008, whilst working full-time, and registered as a Patent Attorney in Australia and New Zealand thereafter. At Freehills I drafted and prosecuted patent specifications covering complex mechanical and chemical engineering devices and methods, and participated in complex freedom to operate (FTO) analyses and patent protection strategy discussions. Show less

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  Csiro

  May 2010 - now

  Moving closer to the science, and again with a portfolio and programme management role within a new Future Science Platform (FSP), but this time in the realm of quantum technologies. The start-up of this FSP was challenging for a few reasons, including a new Director not familiar with CSIRO, an imperative to act fast in a globally accelerating race to build and make use of quantum industries, a very competitive quantum capability landscape, and a very complex communications and education challenge to bring non-quantum staff with us on the capability uplift journey. My role was again varied, but touched on strategy development, strategy implementation planning, scientific communication for education, communication generally, as well as more typical programme office governance and management process design and coordination. Show less The organisation was seeking someone with the experience I had gained in the AIM FSP, so I helped with the start-up phase of a new and larger organisational initiative, the Challenges and Digital Transformation Program (CDT). The CDT's purpose was to amplify CSIRO's ability to deliver value at scale and wide-reaching solutions to some of Australia's biggest challenges, by helping CSIRO embrace the opportunities of digital disruption and adopt a mission-approach to deliver on large-scale, ambitious, cross-discipline and cross-organisation challenges. The role was short-lived because the initiative quickly took on momentum and scale, and was split up and re-homed within the appropriate enterprise support services homes. I gained invaluable exposure to executive and strategic processes along the way. Show less I sought a career change in 2017 and moved out of the laboratory and into role as a Portfolio and Project Management Officer within Active Integrated Matter (AIM), one of the 6 Future Science Platforms (FSPs) being then run by CSIRO. The AIM FSP created new technology that combined materials, robotics, and autonomous science, underpinned by processing and sensing technologies, to support the fourth wave of the industrial revolution—industry 4.0—providing global solutions and positioning early adopter industries ahead of the pack. Key achievements during this time were:• developed, implemented and managed a Portfolio Office for the AIM FSP portfolio of 25+ projects to manage risk, including creation of new tools and management processes to raise P3M3 maturity and dashboards and presentations to visualise important parameters needed to make the best decisions on portfolio prioritisation and balance• provided programme and project management coaching for leaders in the AIM FSP, which influenced real change in project teams’ perception, behaviours and output• led the financial planning process to determine the AIM FSP portfolio's annual budget and monitored the operating budget spend vs actual Show less A promotion in 2013 saw my role expand to include greater autonomy in the planning and preparation of research proposals, and the implementation of subsequent research investigations. Additionally, I had responsibility for the activities of the materials development team, and reported undertakings at regular team meetings. My intellectual property background naturally led to assisting with PCT specification drafting and later national phase entry prosecution for my team. Key achievements during this time were:• designed and developed scale-up equipment and processes for the coating of 3D microcarriers, enabling our commercial partner to undertake clinically-relevant assessments;• invented and manufactured 3D microcarriers that out-perform, by a factor of 3, commericially-available products in small-scale spinner culture of mesenchymal stem cells in serum-free media; • effective leadership of the material development team and the biological assessment team, notably during the extended period of the project leader's personal leave; and• managed productive collaborations with colleagues, despite geographical distance, on topics of self-assembling peptides and proteins for biocompatible gel manufacture, anti-bacterial surfaces, and plasma polymer templating from amyloid fibril network substrates, leading to 13 peer-reviewed publications in 7 years. Show less In 2010 I joined a multidisciplinary team at CSIRO focused on the development of a surface for the culture of mesenchymal stem cells. I was hired into this team for my experience in biological assessment of biomaterials but was soon promoted to lead of the material development team. The project was conducted in collaboration with the CRC for Polymers and Mesoblast (ASX:MSB; ADR:MBLTY). Key achievements during this time were:• design, sourcing, and implementation of quality control equipment and protocols to improve existing batch-to-batch variability issues, and gain an estimated 5-fold increase in quality assurance and confidence in performance outcomes;• technical innovation and capture thereof in a provisional patent application where I was the sole inventor, and use of my intellectual property experience to coordinate and assist with specification drafting; and• advancement of the lead surface for stem cell culture to enable 4-fold greater presentation of biofunctional ligand. Show less

  • Programme Management Support in Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform

    Sept 2021 - now

  • Research Management Support for Manufacturing BU Strategy Development

    Sept 2020 - Sept 2021

  • Programme Management Support in the Challenges and Digital Transformation Program Office

    Nov 2019 - Sept 2020

  • Research Manager in the Active Integrated Matter Future Science Platform

    Jun 2017 - Nov 2019

  • Team Leader (deputy) in the Active Integrated Matter Future Science Platform

    Oct 2016 - Jun 2017

  • Research Scientist

    Jul 2013 - Jun 2017

  • Research Projects Officer

    May 2010 - Jun 2013
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  Creactive after hours

  Dec 2016 - Jan 2017

  Air out

  My dad, after a career in Metallurgy / Quality Assurance, retired and went back to university and became a mixed media artist... like you do! He curated an exhibition as part of his Master's degree, and because I too am a great artist (read: just related to him), I had an 'artwork' displayed! There's a first for everything!