Rhys Francis
Nadia Rosenthal
Greg Harper
Warren Parker
Rhys Francis
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. 
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.
Greg Harper
Dr Greg Harper manages the Strategic Science portfolio of Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd., a producer-owned company that provides services to livestock producers, processors, exporters, foodservice operators and retailers. Strategic Science invests approximately $7M per annum, including farmer levy contributions, in transformational technologies.
Greg received his Bachelor of Science degree from Uni of Qld in 1980 and then his PhD from Monash University. He completed post doctoral fellowships in human genetics in the US, Sweden and Adelaide before joining CSIRO back in Brisbane in 1992. Greg focussed his work in CSIRO on meat eating quality and he was part of both the first and second Beef CRCs; he was project leader of marbling research in the second. More recently he became involved in aspects of animal genomics and was a key player in development of both 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. Greg started with MLA in January 2006 as a secondment from CSIRO.
Through his academic career, Greg has published over 100 articles including book chapters, scientific papers and reviews, and he has trained six postgraduate students. Greg’s work was recognised in a CSIRO Award for Collaborative Excellence in 2003. He regularly reviews manuscripts for three scientific journals, and is immediate past President of the Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand.
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.