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Dr Christine O'Keefe
Dr Christine O'Keefe is the Operations Director in the Preventative Health National Research Flagship.

Christine O’Keefe: protecting our privacy

Dr Christine O'Keefe is the Operations Director in the Preventative Health National Research Flagship.

Current activities

Dr Christine O'Keefe is the Operations Director in the Preventative Health National Research Flagship.

Dr O'Keefe assists the Flagship Director with strategic activities and provides additional support to the Director and the Flagship Theme Leaders.

Background

Dr O'Keefe is a mathematician who has been working with CSIRO since 2000.

Her researched has focused on developing techniques for:

  • protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals and organisations represented in health databases
  • assessing disclosure risk and information utility in statistical disclosure limitation techniques.

CSIRO has developed demonstrator software based on some of these techniques, known as Privacy-Preserving Analytics (PPA).

Academic qualifications

Dr O'Keefe has been awarded a:

  • Bachelor of Science with Honours in Pure Mathematics from The University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1982
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Pure Mathematics also from The University of Adelaide, in 1988
  • Master of Business Administration from the Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory, in 2008.

Achievements

Dr O’Keefe has been awarded the:

  • Acumen Alliance Prize for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Planning in 2007
  • Accenture Prize for Corporate strategy in 2005
  • Australian Mathematical Society Medal for distinguished research in the Mathematical Sciences in 2000
  • Hall Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications for outstanding contributions to the field in 1996
  • RC Heddle Award from The University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 1982
  • Dux of Loreto College, Adelaide in 1977.

She is also a:

  • a Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications
  • a Fellow of the Australian Mathematical Society
  • a member of the Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia
  • an Associate of the Confidentiality and Privacy Group, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

In 2000 Dr O’Keefe was included on the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame Signature Quilt, A Patchwork of Empowerment.

Learn about CSIRO's work in the Preventative Health Flagship.

 

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Scientist Profile

Name: Dr Christine O'Keefe

Title: Operations Director

Qualifications: 

  • BSc (Hons)
  • PhD
  • MBA

Expertise:

  • statistical disclosure limitation
  • privacy-preserving data mining and analysis
  • classifier design
  • finite geometry
  • combinatorics, particularly design theory
  • information security, particularly secret sharing schemes

Awards: 

  • 2000 Australian Mathematical Society Medal: distinguished research in the Mathematical Sciences
  • 1996 Hall Medal, Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications: outstanding contributions to the field
Publishing History

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Dr Christine O'Keefe
Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics
Phone: 61 2 6216 7021 
Fax: 61 2 6216 7111 

Location

Preventative Health
Computer Science and Information Technology Building
North Road
Acton ACT 2061
Australia
GPO Box 664
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia