Under the Hood: Australia's CSIRO

Get ready for another installment of Quantum Women's Under the Hood series!

On May 23rd, we're taking a deep dive into  Australia's national science agency CSIRO who works with industry, government, and the research community to turn science into solutions to address Australia's greatest challenges.  Spanning a range of scientific disciplines across the various stages of the innovation lifecycle, CSIRO applies research to inform policy, develop new industries, and evolve existing industry sectors.

You'll get a chance to meet and hear from a diverse team of experts who will share:

- Personal stories and insights into the day-to-day experience of working at CSIRO and Data61.

- Information about the various roles and responsibilities within the company, and the diverse kinds of backgrounds they look for in future team members.

After the panel discussion, we invite you to participate in a dedicated Q&A session with the speakers. Seize this opportunity to gain insights that could shape your future in the quantum tech industry!

This session is part of Quantum Women's Empower pillar, where we help women build a strong professional network and position them to seize opportunities as they arise.

The goal with Under the Hood is to spark the creation of long-lasting relationships between employers and future quantum tech talent, introduce potential candidates to a wide range of career opportunities, provide a platform for employers to showcase their technology, people, and culture, and ultimately promote diversity and inclusion in the quantum tech industry.

The QW Team.

About the Speakers

Dr Amena Khatun is a Research Fellow at CSIRO’s Data61, specialising in developing quantum machine learning (QML) methods.  She is passionate about developing innovative AI solutions to tackle real-world challenges across various domains. With a background in both traditional AI and cutting-edge quantum machine learning, Amena thrives on pushing the boundaries of what's possible in technology.  Her expertise lies in QML, quantum transfer learning, quantum generative AI, and quantum adversarial learning, where she is developing ground-breaking quantum AI algorithms with applications spanning defence and intelligence, healthcare, cybersecurity, and beyond.

Throughout her academic and professional journey, Amena has received prestigious awards and scholarships, including the Chancellor's Gold Medal, the Australian Government Research Training Program scholarship, QUT Excellence Top-Up, and QUT’s HDR High Achiever Award.  Her work is published in leading journals such as Pattern Recognition and IEEE Transactions, and I she serves as a reviewer for several IEEE journals.

Dr Katja Digweed is a Research Director overseeing a portfolio of multi-disciplinary, collaborative research projects with applications in space, energy, biomed, defence, and quantum technologies. Working with industry, government and the research community, Katja is on a quest to turn science into solutions to address Australia’s greatest challenges.

With 15 years industry experience in disruptive digital inkjet printing solutions, optical communications, and photonics technology she is passionate about partnering with industry to develop innovative products that allow Australian manufacturers to be globally competitive and environmentally sustainable. A champion of diversity and inclusion, Katja has been a supportive mentor for women in STEM throughout her career.

Dr Liam Hall is an internationally recognised pioneer in the development and use of quantum systems to interrogate biological phenomena at the nanoscale, having authored over 40 peer-reviewed papers spanning the theoretical/ experimental spectrum, and as a Chief Investigator on grants totalling more than $40M in research funding.

Liam completed his undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics, followed by a PhD in quantum physics at the University of Melbourne.  After postdoctoral research in Melbourne and Germany, he established his research group at Melbourne University School of Chemistry in 2019, focusing on quantum sensors for nanoscale magnetic resonance in biological systems.  At CSIRO, he leads a multidisciplinary team in advancing this research for biomedical, defence, and analytical applications.

Beyond physics, Liam enjoys exploring wave phenomena through Jazz music and surfing with his family.