Deborah Lau, CSIRO

With over 14 years of senior research management experience at CSIRO, Deborah has delivered impact across a diverse portfolio of projects developing materials and processes for energy and the environment. Deborah has been nationally awarded and internationally recognized for contribution to the field of cultural heritage and conservation science in Australia and has recently led the first global commercialisation of a novel polymer coating called MS3, now being used to protect the world’s most valuable paintings. She has long-standing expertise in developing hyperspectral and chemometric approaches to data analysis for an extensive range of complex material structures in order to accelerate materials discovery. She is now leading the Ending Plastic Waste Mission which is Australia’s catalyst for systematic change to tackle plastic pollution.