Dr Gerard Wilson: transforming industry through high performance polymers

Dr Gerard Wilson's research will impact the energy and electronics devices industries by developing the next generation of flexible electronics.

• 15 February 2006 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Gerard Wilson currently heads CSIRO's research into flexible electronics within the Future Manufacturing Flagship.

His expertise is in polymer and advanced composite material science.

Background

Dr Wilson joined CSIRO in 1992 as a member of the Security Devices Group and then became Program Leader of the Applied Chemistry Program at CSIRO Molecular Science.

He has also served as a member of CSIRO's Research and Marketing Key Strategy Groups, and Coordinator of the Speciality Chemicals Component group.

After completing his doctoral studies, Dr Wilson spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Industrial Laser Applications (CILA), located at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

There he worked on a range of activities providing laser-based solutions to companies in the biotechnology, coatings and polymer industries.

In 1988 he joined Professor Ken Ghiggino's Photophysics and Photochemistry Group at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, working on ultra-fast phenomena in artificial light-harvesting systems. 

Academic qualifications

Dr Wilson was awarded a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Chemistry from University College Dublin, Ireland, in 1981.

He undertook postgraduate studies in the Research School of Chemistry at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, receiving his Doctorate in laser spectroscopy in 1986. This work examined the fundamental photochemical and photophysical processes in a range of multi-chromophore systems.

Achievements

Dr Wilson has published in the areas of spectroscopy, polymer science, biotechnology and nanotechnology.

He has been awarded several patents on security devices, one of which (the diffractive optic element) has been used on Chinese and Romanian banknotes.

He is an Associate Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI).

Read about Future Manufacturing Flagship overview.