052025 Alumni newsletter
Welcome to the May 2025 CSIRO Alumni network newsletter.
In this month’s newsletter you can read about the latest news, register for events, join our new ‘Hear from Alumni’ series, and learn about courses and offers available to CSIRO Alumni members.
A fine blend of science with heritage grapevines to future proof Australian wines
New climate-resilient and mildew-resistant grapevines have been planted in South Australia to help protect Australia’s $45 billion industry.
Plastic pollution along Australian coastlines decreases by 39 per cent
Research across six metropolitan regions in Australia shows a significant decrease in plastic waste. Despite this, polystyrene and cigarette butts are some of the most found items in the environment.
New study brings vehicle-to-grid technology a step closer in Australia
CSIRO and Essential Energy trial shows EVs can act as solar-charged home batteries using common CCS2 plug.
AI is changing the game for plant proteins
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to transform how we develop future protein foods, by identifying less resource-intensive plant crop varieties, and the most productive ways to farm them and turn them into new products.
Help grow our alumni network
We now have over 5,100 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
We thank Dr Max Richards for his generous scholarship donation
We would like to thank and publicly acknowledge Dr Max Richards, who has made a very generous donation to our CSIRO Alumni scholarship fund.
The CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics aims to connect the brightest postgraduate physicists or mathematicians to a leading research centre overseas or in Australia.
Dr Richards chose to donate to our CSIRO Alumni scholarship as he explained, “The Overseas Studentship I received from CSIRO opened up the world for me, and I am pleased to give something back.”
He joined CSIRO in 1964, in a Mineragraphic section run by Arthur Gaskin. He published a couple of research papers and was awarded the scholarship, which took him to Stanford University in California Whilst working there, he met graduate students from several countries, including some working in industry. By June 1965, he had joined a Canadian mining company in their exploration division. One of the conditions of the scholarship was that he had to return to Australia after 3 years, so he came back and pursued a career in the mining industry as an explorer.
Dr Richards reflects, “The 3 years experience in Canada established a wonderful connection between research and industry, which defined the rest of my career.”
Dr Richards later went on to become a member of the CSIRO Board.
Learn more about the History of Australian geoscience, in this interview of Dr Max Richards, by Fiona Rothchilds as part of the joint oral history project conducted by the National Library of Australia and Geoscience Australia.
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 Dr David Ratkowsky
David worked at CSIRO’s seafood technology lab before joining the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in the early 1990’s as an honorary researcher in the microbiology team.
Vale Beverly Budgen
We are sorry to share the news that Beverly Budgen passed away on Monday 24 February, 2025.
Vale John Stephens
John Stephens worked as a research scientist with the Division of Coal Research/Technology (and all its other names over the years!) from the late 1950’s to the mid-1990’s.
Vale Dr Albert Rovira
The contribution of Albert Rovira to agricultural science in SA over many decades is being celebrated after his death late last year. For more than three decades, Dr Rovira worked closely with SA farmers in his role with the CSIRO Division of Soils.