Dr Amanda Barnard

Chief Research Scientist

Contact details:

https://people.csiro.au/B/A/Amanda-Barnard.aspx

Biography

Dr Amanda Barnard is a Chief Research Scientist in Data61 at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). She received her Ph.D. (Physics) in from RMIT in 2003, followed by a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory (USA), and the prestigious senior research position as Violette & Samuel Glasstone Fellow at the University of Oxford (UK) with an Extraordinary Research Fellowship at The Queen’s College. She joined CSIRO as an Australian Research Council Queen Elizabeth II Fellow in 2009, and now leads research developing structure/property relationships using computational physics and chemistry, machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI). She is an advocate and champion for computational research in Australia.

Dr Barnard is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and currently the Chair of the Australian National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS), having served as Deputy Chair from 2016-2017, and as a committee member since 2012. In addition to this Dr Barnard sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Centre for Biomedical Data Visualisation (BioViS) at the Garvan Institute and the External Advisory Board for the Centre for Theoretical and Computational Molecular Science (CTCMS) at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland. Currently Dr Barnard is a member of the Panel of Expert Advisors in the Physical Sciences for The Nature Index (NPG), the International Executive Board of Nano Futures (IOP), the Editorial Advisory Board for Nanoscale (RSC), the Senior Advisory Panel for the Journal of Physics: Materials (IOP) and was an Senior Associate Editor for Science Advances (AAAS) from 2014-2017. Most recently Dr Barnard joined the Board of Directors for New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) and the Expert Panel for the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore.

She has been recognised for leadership, including as a 2017 Woman of Achievement from the Black & White Foundation, as a Finalist for the 2015 Daily Life Women of the Year, and was named as one of the Top 10 Business Women in Australia by the Huffington post in 2015. Her research has been awarded in six scientific disciplines. For her work she has won the 2009 Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, the 2009 Mercedes Benz Environmental Research Award, the 2009 Malcolm McIntosh Award from the Prime Minister of Australia for the Physical Scientist of the Year, the 2010 Frederick White Prize from the Australian Academy of Sciences, the 2010 Distinguished Lecturer Award from the IEEE South Australia, the 2010 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, the 2014 ACS Nano Lectureship (Asia/Pacific) from the American Chemical Society, and the 2014 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theory) from the Foresight Institute, being the first woman to do so in the history of the award.

Achievements and Awards

  • 2018-

    100 Women of Chemistry
    Royal Society of Chemistry

  • 2017-

    Woman of Achievement
    Black & White Foundation

  • 2014-

    Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theory)
    Foresight Institute

  • 2014-

    ACS Nano Lectureship (Asia/Pacific)
    American Chemical Society

  • 2010-

    Frederick White Prize
    Australian Academy of Science

  • 2010-

    UNSW Eureka Prize for Science Research
    Australian Museum

  • 2010-

    IEEE Distinguished Lecturer
    IEEE South Australia

  • 2009-

    Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year
    Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science

  • 2009-

    Chief's Research Award
    CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering

  • 2009-

    Mercedes-Benz Australian Environmental Research Award
    Banksia Foundation

  • 2009- 2012

    Future Summit Leadership Award
    Australian Davos Connection

  • 2009-

    Young Scientist Prize in Computational Physics
    International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

  • 2009- 2014

    JG Russel Award
    Australian Academy of Science

  • 2008-

    L'Oreal Australia "For women in science" Award
    L'Oreal Australia and UNESCO

  • 2008-

    RMIT University Alumnus of the Year
    RMIT University

  • 2005-2008

    Extraordinary Research Fellowship
    The Queen's College, Oxford

Professional Areas

Professional Experiences

  • 2018-...

    Chief Research Scientist
    Data61

  • 2013-2018

    OCE Science Leader
    Office of the Chief Executive (OCE)

  • 2009-2013

    Queen Elizabeth II Fellow
    Australian Research Council (ARC)

  • 2008-2009

    Inaugural Future Generation Fellow
    University of Melbourne

  • 2005-2008

    Violette & Samuel Glasstone Fellow
    University of Oxford

  • 2003-2005

    CNM Distinguished Fellow
    Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)

Other highlights

  • 2018-Current

    Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), UK

  • 2013-Current

    Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics (FAIP), Australia

Grants

  • 2015-2018

    Stereochemistry and Statistical Modelling for Polymer Prediction, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (Collaboration with Ezio Rizzado, San Thang and Graeme Moad)

  • 2014-2017

    Quantum Mechanical Solvation Energies for Modelling Site-dependent pKa in Molecular Systems, , OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (Collaboration with Manolo Per)

  • 2014-2017

    Dynamic Efficiency of Nanostructures Electrocatalysts, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

  • 2014-2017

    Dynamic Efficiency of Nanostructures Electrocatalysts, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

  • 2013-2018

    Statistical Nanoscience, OCE Science Leader Scheme

  • 2013-2016

    Molecular Design Of Inhibitors for Self Repair of Surfaces, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme (Collaboration with Ivan Cole)

  • 2013-2016

    Thermodynamic Cartography of Zinc Oxide: Connecting Structure, Environment and Performance, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

  • 2012-2015

    CMQMC, Project Development Grant, Advanced Materials Transformative Capability Platform

  • 2012-2015

    Modelling Self-assembly of Carbon Nanostructures and the Formation of Multilayered Graphene Membranes, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

  • 2011-2015

    ARC Discovery Grant - A theoretical hierachy to investigate the electronic behaviour of graphene nanostructures under realistic

  • 2010-2013

    Predicting Material Properties for Optimal Nanodiamond-based Chemotherapeutic Delivery Systems, OCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme

  • 2009-2014

    ARC Discovery Grant - Environmental stability of nanoscale materials for catalysis and sensing

Community and Corporate Citizenship

  • 2018

    Chair, National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS)

  • 2019-Current

    Expert Panel, National Research Foundation Competitive Research Programme, Singapore

  • 2019-2019

    Assessment Panel, New Zealand Data Science Research Programmes, Ministry for Business, Innovation & Empolymenr, NZ

  • 2018-Current

    Chair, National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS), Australia

  • 2018-Current

    International Executive Board, Nano Futures (IOP), UK

  • 2018-Current

    Chair, User Reference Group - Pawsey Capital Refresh, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Australia

  • 2019-Current

    Awards Nomination Sub-Committee (ANSC), Materials Research Society (MRS), USA

  • 2018-Current

    Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Physics: Materials (IOP)

  • 2014

    Nature Index Panel, (Physical Sciences), Nature Publishing Group (NPG)

  • 2013-Current

    Editorial Advisory Board, Nanoscale (RSC)

  • 2014

    External Advisory Board, AIBN Centre for Theoretical and Computational Molecular Science (CTCMS)

  • 2015-2017

    Partner Allocation Committee, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre

  • 2017

    Mid-Term Review Panel, Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs), New Zealand

  • 2016-2017

    Deputy Chair, National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS)

  • 2015-2017

    Course Advisory Board, La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences

  • 2014-2017

    Associate Editor, Science Advances (AAAS)

  • 2010-2013

    External Advisory Board, Centre for the Study of Choice (CenSoC)

  • 2005-2011

    Associate Editor - Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience