Dr Rachel Williams, Social Scientist

Dr Rachel Williams: facilitating learning in participatory social research

Dr Williams’ research focuses on the development of monitoring and evaluation approaches that foster learning and improvement in community sustainability research.

• 16 August 2006 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Rachel Williams has a monitoring and evaluation role with the Social Systems Analysis Research Group and is currently working on the Analysing Rural Transitions project.

More recently, she has been monitoring participatory community sustainability projects in the Sustainable Communities Initiative, with a specific focus on the development of cross-sector partnerships. 

Her primary interest is in processes that foster social learning in transdisciplinary research, particularly in a sustainability context.

Background

Prior to her current position, Dr Williams was the network coordinator for the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science, facilitating the networking and capacity building initiatives aimed at developing an inter-disciplinary, CSS community-of-practice. 

She joined CSIRO in a leadership and team development role, working with the Learning and Development Group.

Dr Williams’ initial research experience was as a Materials Chemist, working on the structure and ionic transport properties of glass. She joined CSIRO after several years with BHP Research, investigating the high pressure reduction of iron ore.

Academic qualifications

Dr Williams has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Materials Chemistry from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 1986
• Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK, 1991
• Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 2006

Awards

Dr Williams, with the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science, received the One-CSIRO Award in 2005.

She also received the Royal Australian Chemical Institute Masson Medal in 1986.

Find out more about CSIRO's work in Sustainability.