Dr Tim Baynes is an industrial ecologist with CSIRO.

Dr Tim Baynes: applying complex systems science to cities

Dr Baynes has a research focuses on industrial ecology, complex systems science and sustainability analysis.

• 6 January 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Tim Baynes leads a research team applying complex systems science to problems of urban function and development.

He is also investigating material and energy accounting of the physical economy, and is part of an international team that has developed a water accounting system as part of a regional stocks and flows framework.

Dr Baynes is using the Australian Stocks and Flows Framework, through CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship, to demonstrate the environmental impact of broad scale uptake of distributed energy technologies. Preliminary results show significant water savings.

He is also working on water supply and risk assessment with the Queensland Water Commission, Griffith University and the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services.

Background

Dr Baynes joined CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in 2005.

His previous research with the Australian Defence Force Academy School of Physics, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and the University of New South Wales School of Physics, focused on applied physics, and led to international journal articles on magnetics and biophysics. 

Academic qualifications

Dr Baynes has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science with Honours, Medical Physics, from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia in 1995 
• Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Physics also from UNSW in 2002.

Achievements

Dr Baynes's research has been cited extensively.

Some highlights of his diverse career include:

• discovering a new mechanism for the inhibition of calcium channels in skeletal and cardiac muscle
• presenting the first alternative protocol for naval vessel demagnetisation in 50 years.

Dr Baynes's affiliations, awards and achievements include:

• invited seminar, The Permanence of Temporary Things (and Vice Versa) [external link], at Interesting South, Sydney, Australia, 2009
• invited seminar, It's Not Rocket Surgery [external link], at Interesting South, Sydney, Australia, 2008
• member, International Society of Industrial Ecology, 2005–current
• presenter and producer, 2SER FM Sydney, Diffusion
• presenter and producer, 2XX FM Canberra, Fuzzy Logic, 2001–08
• Australian Science Week Fresh Science scholarship, 2002
• invited seminar at the Australian Defence Force Academy, 2002
• Australian Institute of Physics (New South Wales) Award for Postgraduate Excellence, 2001
• invited seminar at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Sydney, 2001.

Find out more about the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science.