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Dr Greg Ayers - Biography

Dr Greg Ayers is currently Chief of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, managing a staff of approximately 550 people, plus more than 150 students and visitors. Greg was appointed Chief of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in August 2005, following the merger of CSIRO Atmospheric Research with CSIRO Marine Research in July. Previously, Greg was Chief of Atmospheric Research from 2002, having been Assistant Chief in 2001-2.

In his roles with CSIRO he has been strongly committed to:

• national and international scientific collaboration;
• policy advice;
• science and technology transfer and industry support, including commercialisation of intellectual property; and
• higher education.

His scientific interests have been wide-ranging, including:

• marine phytoplankton contributions to the atmospheric sulfur cycle and climate feedbacks;
• the coupling of marine and atmospheric chemistry;
• photochemistry, oxidants and ozone in the marine environment;
• polar atmospheric chemistry and ice core composition;
• the roles of atmospheric particles and clouds in the climate system;
• air pollution, atmospheric acidity, acid formation, and acid deposition;
• atmospheric chemistry and global change in the tropics, especially South-East Asia; and
• indoor air quality and human health.

Academic qualifications

Dr Ayers completed his Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours at Monash University, Melbourne, in 1972 and his PhD in Physical Chemistry in 1976, also at Monash University.

Achievements

Dr Ayers has been a member of numerous national and international committees and boards, including the International Commission for Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, and the World Meteorological Organization’s EC Panel of Experts/CAS Working Group on Environmental Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry. For seven years he led a major component of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry activity focused on SE Asia. He currently serves as a Board member of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, and is a Supervisory Committee member for the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.

He holds a number of editorial positions and has made significant contributions to higher education in atmospheric sciences, having spent periods at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, the Department of Meteorology at Stockholm University, and the University of East Anglia at Norwich.

In 1995, Dr Ayers was awarded the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's Priestley Medal for achievements in the science of acid deposition.

He has registered two patents and two commercial licences for instruments developed in the course of his work. He has authored 140 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and written a similar number of commercial reports.

In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.