To Antarctica and back: Reflections on the STEMM Women in Leadership Program “Homeward Bound”
Date
11 May 2018, Friday
Time and Venues
| Venues | Local Time | Time Zone |
| Armidale – Liaison center | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Brisbane St Lucia QBP – Desktops (local QBP details via email from Anna Campbell) | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Canberra Black Mountain – Discovery Lecture Theatre; Crace – Bld44- Meeting Room 3 | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Narrabri Myall Vale – Conference Room | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Perth Floreat – B40-F1-R46-Rossiter | 10:30 am | AWST |
| Hobart Sandy Bay – B2-F1-R22-ForestView Room | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Toowoomba – Meeting Room | 12:30 pm | AEST |
| Werribee (Melbourne) – Peacock Room | 12:30 pm | AEST |
Speaker
Dr Madeline Mitchell, CSIRO Agriculture and Food
Synopsis
“Have you ever dreamed of exploring Antarctica? What if you could explore how your leadership can shape the world, in the last pristine environment on Earth? Six women from CSIRO were part of the largest ever all-women expedition to the icy continent for the Homeward Bound Leadership Program.*”
Homeward Bound is a year-long, world-wide leadership initiative for women in STEMM that culminates in a three-week intensive program in Antarctica. Over a decade (2016 – 2026) it aims to connect 1000 STEMM women globally.
Madeline Mitchell describes the why, what, how, of her recent participation in this unique women in STEMM Leadership Program.
*CSIRO Agriculture and Food Newsletter, April 2018.
About the speaker
Madeline Mitchell is a plant molecular physiologist interested in understanding the way plants respond to their environment to optimise their growth and how we can best use science for a more sustainable, food-secure world.
Madeline grew up in Bendigo, Australia during the millennial drought and during her undergraduate degree she helped research and put together a report on the social effects of the drought in the Wimmera region of Victoria. This gave her a strong sense of the importance of agriculture for the health of rural communities.
As plants underpin most agriculture and ecosystems, she chose to specialise in plant sciences. During her PhD at the University of Cambridge, she investigated the way algae photosynthesise more efficiently, contributing to an international collaboration to re-engineer crop photosynthesis to improve yields. As an early career researcher at CSIRO, she completed her first Postdoctoral Fellowship on improving renewable oil production for food and non-food applications such as bioplastics. Currently she is researching a synthetic biology project on renewable, biodegradable novel plant fibres.
This is a public seminar.
Open-access to The CSIRO Discovery Theatre @ Black Mountain