2024 has been another big year for DSI with lots happening, including big changes at DSI itself. At the end of May, we farewelled Adrian Pearce, our Director of nine years. With DSI from the start, initially as a Research Leader, Adrian guided DSI through many celebrations and challenges, including welcoming the University of Tasmania to the DSI family; the increase in national cooperation with the creation of ADSUN; and supporting the sector through a global pandemic.
At the same time, we welcomed Toby Murray as the new DSI Director. Toby spent a couple of years as Deputy Director, learning the ropes and in addition to his outstanding academic background in cybersecurity, brought a wealth of experience working on defence-related research with DSTG and other collaborators. This month, we have also celebrated Toby’s promotion to a full Professor of the University of Melbourne.
Our Liaison Community are a vital part of DSI. This year, we farewelled Rosy Calabro and Bree Nicholas, who represented RMIT and Victoria University respectively. Rosy in particular, has been an important part of the relationship between DSI and the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for many years. In the meantime, the Liaison Community continues to grow, as we welcomed Liam Eldon, Phil Roe and Simon Stack from Swinburne; Carline Hamdillah from Monash; James Mullins from Deakin; Zara Hammon from RMIT; Rezaul Begg and Fiona Smith from Victoria University; and Winky Chiu from Melbourne during the year. Joining continuing members – John Besida (RMIT); Navid Mohajer (Deakin); Quin Chang and Jessica Ware (La Trobe); Natalie Emmerson (Monash); Shona Halson and Ashleigh Homer (Australian Catholic University); Sean Muller (Federation) and Len Sciacca (Melbourne) – all the Liaison Community members provide the vital links between their universities and DSI, working together to grow the defence science and research community.
In August we were very pleased to learn that our former Associate Director, Regina Crameri, was appointed as the Victorian Defence Industry Advocate (VDIA) in August. We are looking forward to working with Regina again as she continues the tradition established by former VDIA John O’Callaghan, and has taken on the role of DSI Advisory Board Chair. We would like to thank Tony Lindsay for acting as Chair while Regina’s appointment was finalised.
Speaking of the DSI Advisory Board, we would also like to thank Liz Sonenberg for her valuable service over recent years; and welcome Alastair Sloan who is now representing the University of Melbourne.
We also welcomed two new very important appointees in our funding organisations, who also joined the Advisory Board. Teresa Tufano took on the Executive Director, Defence, Aviation and Aerospace, role previously held by Unni Menon in the Department of Jobs, Skills, Innovation and Regions. Meanwhile at DSTG, Rob Hunjet replaced Melissa Laws as the Project Leader for ADSUN. DSI would not exist without the support of Teresa and Rob and their respective organisations, and we are very grateful for all that they do.
This year has also seen the Tasmanian Government join the University of Tasmania as an official part of the DSI family. We are excited to be working with the Department of State Growth increasing the opportunities for Tasmanian companies, students and researchers in the Defence sector, not to mention the increased opportunities for field trips!
The expansion of Tasmanian activities would not be possible without our internship delivery partners, APR.Intern and Ai Group CET. Justin Mabbutt at APR.Intern has worked tirelessly with our own Charlotte Morris on the postgraduate internship program, while Andrew Elsbury at Ai Group CET continues to place undergraduates across the sector, giving them great experience.
September was a very busy month with all hands on deck for Land Forces in Melbourne, followed immediately by ADSTAR in Canberra. We took a delegation of 10 early career researchers to ADSTAR, introducing them lots of important people and ideas in the defence science and innovation ecosystem. Bookending those two events, Callum Wright and Charlotte Morris went to the UK for the Farnborough International Airshow in July, while Craig Butler visited the USA for AUSA in October.
Supporting the next generation of researchers and innovators is something we take very seriously at DSI and we are immensely proud of the postgraduate students we support. Not only are they great at research, but many are proving to be highly skilled research communicators as well, something that we all need to be better at. This year Shannon Fizer (Victoria University) and Irumi Anarasinghe (La Trobe University) both made it through to the Asia-Pacific Semi-Finals of the 3-Minute Thesis competition, competing against students from across Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Shannon was also recognised for her work at the Defence Human Sciences Symposium (DHSS) – named as joint runner-up in the Best Student Oral Presentation Award. Danielle Vickery-Howe (La Trobe) was recognised with the ANZ Biomechanics Society Early Career Researcher Award and at DHSS, receiving the Best Standard Oral Presentation Award. Tina Katsaros (La Trobe) took home the People’s Choice Award and Runner-up in the La Trobe Visualise Your Thesis competition, appeared on 3RRR’s Einstein-A-Go-Go and was featured in ME Research UK’s Breakthrough magazine and on their website. Meanwhile Jay Laws (La Trobe) took his research to the masses as part of Nerd Nite Melbourne. Former student Michael Scott (RMIT) was recognised by Australian Defence Magazine as one of their 30 under 30 winners. And not to be outdone by the postgrads, Joe Zadnik, one of our earliest undergraduate interns, was a finalist for the Land Forces Young Innovator award.
We also love seeing our friends in the universities taking their research further, building on work we might have supported, or partnerships we helped introduce them to. Among the many, highlights for this year have included Sudha Mokkapati (Monash) receiving an Australia’s Economic Accelerator grant, further developing work undertaken as part of the DSI-HAC program; David Simpson (Melbourne) advancing quantum sensor technology with an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellowship to work with Phasor Innovations and CSIRO; Michael Barson (Monash), a member of our first ADSTAR delegation in 2022 and co-supervisor of one of our students, receiving an ARC Early-Career Industry Fellowship, also focused on quantum sensing; and James McCaw, supported by DSI in his ARC Future Fellowship back in 2011, receiving an ARC Laureate Fellowship, continuing his vital work on infectious disease prediction and modelling.
As we head into 2025, DSI remains committed to working with all our wonderful friends and partners to build a strong, innovative defence science ecosystem to support industry and our Defence forces.
And we look forward to seeing everyone at the Avalon International Air Show, where the new Blue Sky Thinking Innovation Award will be making its debut. Taking the popular Innovation PitchFests to the next level, the Blue Sky Thinking Innovation Award offers $10,000 prize money for early-stage ideas that challenge conventional boundaries. Make sure to get your entry in by 3 February.
We thank you all for the great things this year and look forward to working with friends both old and new in 2025.
Watch DSI’s End-Of-Year Greetings video
