Dr Doug Hilton AO, CSIRO chief executive, will Address the National Press Club on “How sovereign science can help Australia navigate the decade ahead”.
In its centenary year, CSIRO is posing the fundamental question: what does a modern Australia need from its national science agency?
With increasingly vulnerable global supply chains, rapid advances in technology, growing climate precarity and fractured notions of truth and trust, CSIRO chief executive Dr Doug Hilton uses his inaugural National Press Club address to explore how sovereign science can help Australia navigate the decade ahead.
Bio
Dr Doug Hilton AO
Since September 2023, Dr Doug Hilton AO has served as the Chief Executive of Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.
A molecular and cellular biologist, Dr Hilton has held numerous board and advisory positions across medical and scientific institutions and is a fierce believer in collaboration across science, industry and government, to translate research into real-world outcomes. At CSIRO, Dr Hilton has led a strategic reshaping of the agency’s large research portfolio, to focus on high-impact research areas and the most critical challenges facing the nation.
Dr Hilton is an advocate for strong institutional cultures and furthering diversity in science. He is a past member of the Champion of Change Coalition and former board member of Australians Investing in Women.
Between 2009-2023, Dr Hilton was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), where he had worked as a researcher since 1986. His medical research focussed on understanding how blood cells communicate and he translated this work through collaboration with venture capitalists and the biopharmaceutical industry, using this knowledge to improve disease treatments.
Dr Hilton was Director of a Cooperative Research Centre in the 1990s and has championed the establishment of several landmark collaborative research centres at WEHI including The Brain Cancer Centre in 2021; to bring together the brightest minds in medical research to end brain cancer as a terminal illness, and the National Drug Discovery Centre; designed to reduce the barriers researchers face in translating their fundamental discoveries into new medicines.
Dr Hilton was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2016 for distinguished service to medical research and education, particularly in haematology, and for his advocacy for gender equity in science. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Science, Technological Sciences and Engineering and Health and Medical Sciences and a member of the National Science and Technology Council (ex-officio) and, in a personal capacity, the board of the Snow Medical Research Foundation.
In his spare time, he is a passionate entomologist and currently focusses on understanding the biology and evolution of a family of tiny day-flying moths involved in the pollination of Australian plants.
