Professor Adrienne Clarke became a Member of the CSIRO Board at its establishment in December 1986. She was also a part-time Member of the former CSIRO Executive.

Professor Ctarke is Head of the School of Botany and Director of the Plant Cel1 Biology Research Centre at the University of Melbourne. She received her tertiary education at the University of Melbourne and her postdoctoral education at Baylor University, Houston, and the University of Michigan, USA. She has held positions on the academic teaching staff of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, as well as the University of Melbourne, where she was appointed to a personal Chair in Botany in 1985. Her research work has been in the field of cellular recognition in plants, particularly in interactions controlling fertilisation and pathogenesis. This field also indudes the chemistry of complex carbohydrates found in plants.

Professor Clarke was appointed Offcer in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 1991 and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Her new position is the highest formal office held by any woman in the Australian scientific community.