Leadership Team
Dr Cecile Paris
- Cecile received her PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) (more specifically in Natural Language Processing and User Modelling) in 1987 from Columbia University (New York) and her Bachelor degree from the University of California in Berkeley. Cecile's research has focused on Natural Language Processing (also called Computational Linguistics, and Language Technologies) and User Modelling throughout her career. Cecile is interested both in facilitating communication with computers and in unlocking information from unstructured data (specifically textual data, such as social media posts, enterprise documents and scientific literature) to provide insights for a variety of purposes. She is also interested in understanding how people communicate, and how people can work most effectively with automated systems. Cecile's research is typically multidisciplinary and rooted in practical concerns with a clear path to impact.
Dr Andrew Reeson
- Andrew (Andy) is a principal research scientist in CSIRO’s Data61. His work combines behavioural economics with econometric modelling to address issues of national significance to Australia. After a mis-spent youth taking biology at Oxford he switched to economics in order to focus on the more challenging aspects of real-world problems. On joining CSIRO in 2004 he worked on the design and implementation of environmental policy tools. This included applying economic experiments to inform the design of the Emissions Reduction Fund and advising on major water programs.
Over the last few years he has switched his focus to the digital economy. Current interests include economic mechanisms for equitable data sharing, the impact of technology on employment markets (e.g. Tomorrow’s Digitally Enabled Workforce) and potential policy responses (e.g. The VET Era: Equipping Australia's Workforce for the Future Digital Economy). Among other recent projects are large scale randomised controlled trials of behavioural economics insights (with over 160,000 participants in total), a paper modelling the impacts of information technology on Australian businesses and a high profile analysis of superannuation drawdown behaviour.
Past highlights include an invited review of behavioural economics and its implications for the Australian tax and transfer system for the Henry Tax Review, establishing an innovative prediction market for water forecasting, and designing landscape-scale conservation auctions. He currently leads a multidisciplinary research team in Data61 focussed on socio-technical aspects of market design. He has a diverse of research publications (see Google Scholar).
Helen Hicks
- Complimenting Helen's tertiary studies in Business and Marketing, Helen is also a qualified Prince2 Project Manager and a Prosci trained Change Manager. Prior to joining CSIRO, Helen worked extensively with industry as a Commercial Manager and Corporate Analyst. Evaluating SMEs and large corporate clients and understanding how their businesses work was a large part of her role. Helen has also applied her skills in other roles and relationships with tertiary institutes including the University of South Australia, ANU, UNSW, Curtin and QUT.
Helen's role in managing a large team of project support staff across various business units within CSIRO, has involved significant participation and leadership in conversations/discussions and negotiations with all RDCs, ARCs and other research organisations.
Project management and training across CSIRO, and its partnerships, is certainly her passion particularly during the delivering of many major projects including FlexiPurchase, Corporate Credit Card review, O2D and Streamlining Research Operations.
Helen has enjoyed extensive leadership training during her 13 years with CSIRO with the highlight being the Leading Australia's Innovation Catalyst (LAIC) program with a particular focus on collaboration and SMEs, as requested by CSIRO Executive team. Helen's LAIC cohort represents a very valuable network connection across CSIRO and creates a valuable pathway for continued discussions, many of whom occupy Science Directors, Business Unit Directors, and other senior CSIRO roles currently.