HALL OF FAME

Professor Bronwyn Harch

2015 Inductee

Student 1981 - 1985

Professor Bronwyn Harch (nee Christensen) attended Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School as a boarder during 1981 to 1985. Professor Harch (FTSE, AStat, GAICD) is recognised as one of Australia’s most influential names in technological sciences and engineering and has excelled in her delivery and leadership of multi-disciplinary research across Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Professor Harch graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Studies) with First Class Honours (Applicable Mathematics) from Griffith University, whilst concurrently undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching (Science and Mathematics) at Queensland University of Technology. In 1992, she won an industry-sponsored scholarship from the Grains Research and Development Corporation to complete her Doctorate at the University of Queensland. Professor Harch worked on the statistical analysis of big and complex plant and genetic resources data with the Queensland Government and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India.

After completion of her Doctorate in 1995, she commenced work at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Adelaide as a postdoctoral research statistician. She moved back to Brisbane in 2000 to build CSIRO’s agri-environmental statistical capabilities and catalyse research collaborations with  government and industry from Queensland. Professor Harch worked with CSIRO for 19 years and progressed through to managing $70m of research investment as Deputy Director of CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship and then to CSIRO’s Computational Informatics Division (leading over 350 scientists and engineers across 11 Australian cities). She joined Queensland University of Technology in 2014 and leads research and innovation engagement with industry, government and the community for both the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Institute for Future Environments.

Professor Harch has made a number of innovative research contributions at the nexus of statistical, environmental and agricultural sciences, particularly in the area of the statistical design of landscape scale sampling protocols and monitoring programs, as well as the statistical modelling of complex landscape systems. She has demonstrated outstanding leadership in developing major research impact in strategically mobilising, coordinating and translating Australian STEM, with governments at all levels (nationally and internationally), with industry and the community.