Dr Ian Oppermann, Director of CSIRO's ICT Centre.

Dr Ian Oppermann: Director, CSIRO ICT Centre

Dr Ian Oppermann is bringing his extensive international experience to bear on expanding industry engagement with the ICT Centre and on achieving CSIRO's scientific and business goals in information and communication technologies.

• 15 July 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements 
• Affiliations

Dr Ian Oppermann is an internationally respected expert in ultra wideband communications with particular skills in driving business growth.

Current activities

As Director of CSIRO's ICT Centre, Dr Oppermann oversees:

• scientific research
• business strategy
• growth and development opportunities.

His research interests include:

• wideband channel modelling
• code division multiple access (CDMA) receiver structures for high data rate/low mobility environments
• complex valued spreading sequences for CDMA systems.

Outside CSIRO, Dr Oppermann is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the IEEE International Conference on Ultra Wideband, a position he has held since 2004. IEEE is a professional engineering body.

Background

Prior to joining CSIRO in 2010, Dr Oppermann was Global Head of Service Management and Charging, Sales Partnering and Go-to-Market for Nokia Siemens Networks' software business unit.

In this role his responsibilities included:

• selecting and developing business partner relationships
• formulating business strategies, models and processes
• driving creativity
• negotiating contracts
• developing internal governance models.

Dr Oppermann's previous roles include:

• Director of Radio Access Performance Business, Nokia Siemens
• Director (previously Assistant Director) of the Centre for Wireless Communications, a self-funded research centre in the University of Oulu, Finland
• Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SP Communications in Sydney, Australia
• Communications Engineer with OTC Australia.

Academic qualifications

Dr Oppermann has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science in computer science and pure mathematics, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1989
• Bachelor of Electrical Engineering with Honours, The University of Sydney, 1991
• Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering in mobile communications, The University of Sydney, 1996
• Master of Business Administration in international business management, University of London, United Kingdom, 2005.

Achievements

Dr Oppermann has co-authored several technical books, authored or co-authored more than 120 papers in technical journals or conference proceedings and edited the special editions of several leading scientific publications. He continues to publish in the scientific and business press.

Dr Oppermann has been General and Technical Chairman of such major conferences as:

• IEEE International Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, Helsinki, Finland, 2006
• IEEE International Conference on Ultra-wideband, Zurich, Switzerland, 2005
• IEEE International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Technologies and Applications, 2004, Sydney, Australia
• International Workshop on Wireless Ad hoc Networks, 2004, Oulu, Finland
• International Workshop on Ultra Wideband Systems, 2003, Oulu, Finland.

From 2002-05 he was Assistant Marketing Director of the Wireless World Research Forum, an industry body that looks to define the direction of wireless communication research beyond the third generation.

Dr Oppermann's skills in teaching have been recognised with awards and some of his conference publications have been dubbed best paper.

Affiliations

Dr Oppermann holds the following positions:

• professional associations
  • Fellow, Engineers Australia (FIEAust)
  • Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (SMIEEE)
  • Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
• boards and councils
  • Member, Board of Directors, Australian e-Health Research Centre
  • Member, Board of Directors, Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation
  • Member, VTT Scientific Advisory Board (VTT Finland)
  • Member, Steering Committee, IBM Global R&D Laboratory (Australia)
  • Member, Board of the Australia Telescope National Facility
• academic associations
  • Chairman, Advisory Council, Department of Electronic Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
  • Member, Advisory Council, Institute for Telecoms Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia 
  • Adjunct Professor (Docent) in Digital Signal Processing, University of Oulu, Finland
  • Adjunct Professor, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia
  • Visiting Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Dr Oppermann was also Chairman of the IEEE Communications Society, Finland Chapter from 2002-2005. 

Read more about CSIRO ICT Centre.