People, planet, prosperity: How to save our world

Dr Zoë Doubleday is an award-winning marine ecologist and passionate advocate for accessible science (www.marislabs.org). Zoë is an expert on octopus, as well as using chemical fingerprints to unlock the biological histories and geographical origins of marine animals. Zoë also works regularly with the media to promote diversity in STEM, marine research, and the environment.

In his final year of PhD, Deepak is focused on creating cutting-edge nanomaterials for the treatment of water. His primary goal is to help find solutions to pressing issues in environmental clean-up and water reclamation focusing on collaborative research sustainable development. He is one of the Study Geelong Ambassadors who is developing projects and workshops to help international students in Geelong who are enrolled in tertiary education upgrade their skills. He teaches and develops courses at Deakin University in areas including water engineering, air pollution and control, and global environmental systems. His current PhD path has greatly aided him in developing his talents in leadership, professional development, engagement and impact, and effective communication. He is motivated to develop the next generation of leaders and instil excitement to explore education in STEM to young students so they can use these abilities to address issues in the larger community.

Meaghan used to be a journalist and editor, who made a career change from media to become an electrical engineer. Her path to that end goal detoured into cyber security and machine learning, and she spent some time building and running a deep tech start up, as well as learning to hack in India and in Australia. She is now doing her PhD at the University of Queensland, in collaboration with a local clean-tech company called EleXsys Energy.  

Dr Cleugh is an atmospheric scientist with a PhD from the University of British Columbia in Canada, on urban climate processes. She was a Lecturer in Physical Geography at Macquarie University in Sydney, NSW from 1987 to 1994 before joining CSIRO as a Research Scientist in 1994 where she remained until retirement in late 2020. She is now an Honorary Professor at ANU.

Dr Cleugh was inaugural Director of CSIRO’s Climate Science Centre from 2017 to 2020 and, for over a decade prior, was a senior leader of CSIRO’s climate and atmospheric research. She built collaborations within CSIRO and nationally, including national research infrastructure for terrestrial observations (NCRIS TERN) and Earth System Models (ACCESS-NRI).

Her research explores the influence of land-air interactions on climate, carbon uptake and water availability, and how this affects carbon and water resource management, environmental outcomes, and climate – at local to global scales and in cities, agricultural and forested landscapes. This research has provided data, information and knowledge for resource managers, urban planners, and decision and policymakers.

She is a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) and the Australian Meteorological Society (AMOS) and a member of the World Climate Research Programme’s Joint Scientific Committee since 2015 and is currently the Vice Chair.