02022026 Alumni newsletter
Welcome to the February 2026 CSIRO Alumni network newsletter.
In this month's newsletter you can read about our 2026 scholarship winner, the CSIRO and Alumni members recognised in the Australia Day Honours, and our upcoming events and courses.
Australia Day Honours 2026
This year’s Australia Day Honours recognised Australians advancing science and public service, including members of our CSIRO and Alumni community.
2026 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics
Our annual CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics award ceremony will be held at Lindfield on Wednesday 25 February.
We are pleased to announce that our guest speaker will be Dr Douglas Bock, CSIRO Director, Space and Astronomy, and Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF). Douglas represents Australia on the Council of the SKA Observatory.
We will also hear from our scholarship winner, Emma Paterson, who will be using the scholarship funds to travel to Jefferson Lab in Virginia, USA which is a world leader in superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) technology, operating one of the most advanced electron accelerator facilities globally.
Help grow our alumni network
We now have over 5,200 members but we know that there are many more former colleagues out there. Help us build the alumni network and forward this newsletter on or share the link to alumni registration.
Many presentations and seminars are now being held online – so you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Our alumni calendar lists both CSIRO and external events, so you can find out about a wide range of events.
To help connect alumni with one another, we encourage you to list your own events on our website. Let us know if you are organising, presenting or attending events and we can help promote it to the alumni network – please email alumni@csiro.au
We feature a range of alumni stories on our website celebrating the achievements of our members. We encourage members to get in touch and send in their stories of trials and tribulations – all in the name of scientific research!
So, if you have received an award, written a book or have any stories that you'd like to share with the alumni network, please email alumni@csiro.au
WA Alumni annual BBQ
The annual end-of-year barbecue for Western Australian Alumni and retirees (and partners) was held ‘under the trees’ at the Floreat site on Tuesday 9th December 2025. There were some 35 attendees, a little fewer than in previous years, partly due to some last-minute cancellations. The weather was near-perfect and as usual the event provided the opportunity to meet old friends and colleagues at the site where all had worked for at least part of their careers. The numbers of staff at Floreat has diminished markedly during the past few years, but we hope the site will remain open and that we will to be able to reconvene there in early December 2026
Thanks are due to Ben Biddulph, the current site leader, and his team who helped ensure the availability of the site facilities.
Shire Military History Club – looking for relatives of Frederick Campbell and Ronald Styles
On a bad weather day at Cronulla, on 27 October 1952, a RAAF Dakota aircraft was flying over the sea, when it disappeared.
It was operated by four service people and there were two civilian scientists from the CSIRO on board. Using a special radar in the nose, they were experimenting with rain-making equipment, and the weather was ideal for their work.
When they did not return to base, a search began. Aside from some personnel items and other jetsam picked up from the sea, no sign of the people on board, was ever found.
The Shire Military History Club (Sutherland NSW) has obtained permission from the local council to install a memorial in South Cronulla, and they are in the process of obtaining sponsors for the project. A plaque will be attached as a memorial to remember those who died. A publication on the incident is planned for later this year. CSIRO Alumni members are very welcome to join us at the unveiling on 29 March this year.
If anyone can provide recollections of the two CSIRO scientists, or the existence of any relatives still aliv
On a sadder note, if you would like to let the alumni network know about the passing of one of our members, please email us and we can post a notice to the news page and also feature an obituary within our stories section.
We invite alumni members to add their own tributes, so please contact alumni@csiro.au if you would like to share your memories of them.
Vale Emma Johnston
It is with the deepest sadness that we share the news that Professor Emma Johnston, who served on the CSIRO Board since August 2023, has passed away due to complications associated with cancer.
During her time on the Board, Emma brought her sharp intellect, collegiality and her passion for science, the higher education sector and the environment, to our work.
An influential marine ecologist, science communicator and leader in the Australian research sector, Emma took up the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in February 2025. Prior to that, she held a range of senior academic leadership roles over her distinguished career including Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales.
Frank Hingston has passed away at the age of 92.
He worked at Floreat for most of his career, variously with Divisions of Soils, Land Resources Management and Water Resources, and finally with the combined Laboratory for Rural Research
Peter Robertson has passed away at the age of 76.
He was an editor and science communicator within the CSIRO Publishing group in Melbourne where he was editor of the national research journal for physics. He has written widely on Australian science, including his book “Radio Astronomer: John Bolton and a New Window on the Universe”, which is a biography of John Bolton, published by CSIRO Publishing.
We are sorry to share the sad news that Dr Jim Peacock has passed away.
He was the Chief of the Division of Plant Industry at CSIRO from 1977 to 2003 and Australia’s Chief Scientist between 2006 and 2008.
Dr Peacock also established the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra, providing many thousands of children and family members with a hands-on science experience illustrating the importance of science in our lives.
Vale Kelvin Wellington
Our Space & Astronomy colleagues are writing a tribute to Kelvin Wellington who has recently passed away. We invite CSIRO Alumni members to get in touch with their memories of working with him.