BOM Chief to shed light on environmental intelligence at Brisbane lecture
Monitoring and forecasting the state of our planet using sophisticated environmental intelligence will be the focus of a public lecture at The University of Queensland (UQ) on 25 June.
Featuring Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology Director Dr Rob Vertessy, the free talk is organised in conjunction with the 2013 AMSI Winter School that will be held in UQ from 24 June to 5 July. UQ’s Head of Mathematics Professor Joseph Grotowski said that environmental intelligence is becoming an increasingly important need, as the world continues to tackle some of its most pressing problems arising from the weather, constraints on natural resources and changing ecosystems.
“The talk promises a fascinating insight into how the role of the modern Bureau of Meteorology is becoming more and more that of providing broad-based environmental intelligence service for Australia,” Professor Grotowski said.
Over the last decade, the Bureau of Meteorology has taken on several new functions that have already set it on this path, including various new ocean, water resources and space weather services.
These developments arise at a time when the planet is changing faster than ever before, when society is demanding more of science, and when technological advances in environmental sensing and earth system simulation are occurring at a rapid pace.
In this public talk, Dr Vertessy will demonstrate that these are exciting and important times for scientific communities and operational agencies specializing in environmental intelligence.
He will make specific reference to the importance of the mathematical sciences in underpinning such endeavours.
“With 2013 being the International Year of the Mathematics of Planet Earth, this talk is especially timely in exploring how mathematics plays a significant role in environmental intelligence,” Professor Grotowski said.
Event details:
What: Public Lecture: Environmental Intelligence for Australia
When: Tuesday 25 June 2013, 6:00pm–7:00pm
Where: Lecture Theatre 358, Physiology Building 63, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus
Admission: Free
Click here for more information about the event.
Media: School of Mathematics and Physics Communications & Marketing Officer Aarti Kapoor (+61 4 4986 3208, a.kapoor@uq.edu.au)
Speaker Bio – Dr Rob Vertessy, Director of Meteorology and CEO, Bureau of Meteorology
In 2012, Dr Rob Vertessy was appointed as the Director and CEO of the Bureau of Meteorology. Prior to that, he was head of the Bureau’s Climate and Water Division, which is responsible for the National Climate Centre, the national flood forecasting and warning service, and new initiative laying the foundations for a National Plan for Environmental Information. Rob commenced that role in 2007 after a 20 year career as a research scientist at CSIRO.
At CSIRO, he specialised in forest hydrology and catchment modelling and is widely published in these fields. Rob served as Chief Executive of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology (2002 2004) and Chief of CSIRO Land and Water (2004 2007). Between his CSIRO and Bureau appointments, Rob was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to advise on the establishment of a national water information strategy. This strategy was taken up by the Australian Government in 2007 and is now being implemented by the Bureau.
