Biography

Professor Bronwyn Harch (FTSE, FQAAS, GAICD, AStat) is the Vice President of Industry and External Engagement at Griffith University (Griffith), Brisbane, Australia.

Bronwyn is very passionate about delivering excellence and impact by generating knowledge, technology and practices that make our world more sustainable, secure and resilient. Professor Harch has led research and innovation efforts – where industry, government and the community co-develop with researchers initiatives that address global challenges that build a strong Australia with a competitive economy. Bronwyn sees the university sector as a catalyst for delivering innovation through transdisciplinary collaboration, nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of researchers and inspiring the next generation to recognise STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) as being at the heart of the nation’s competitiveness. Prof Harch is an applied statistician with 30 years of experience undertaking research focused on the statistical design of landscape-scale sampling protocols and monitoring programs, as well as the statistical modelling of complex systems. Her research has mainly been applied at the nexus of agricultural and environmental systems. Bronwyn’s unique ability to lead research in “informatics”, as well as its adoption into numerous sectors of the economy, was recognised by her peers with her being elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (ATSE) in 2013.

Credentials: Prof Bronwyn Harch obtained a joint undergraduate Science Degree (Honours) in Environmental Science and Secondary Teaching (Mathematics and Science) from Griffith University/QUT. She completed her industry-funded PhD (Grains Research & Development Corporation) in the Agriculture Department of The University of Qld in 1996. She joined CSIRO as a postdoc in Adelaide in 1995. She moved back to Brisbane in 2000 to build CSIRO’s agri-environmental capabilities and catalyse research collaborations with government and industry from Qld. Previously Prof Harch was Chief of CSIRO division of Computational Informatics and Deputy Director of CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship. More recently she was the Executive Director of QUT's Institute for Future Environments (IFE) where the focus was on delivering transdisciplinary research outcomes in conjunction and industry, government and community and providing access to cross-organisational research facilities to members of both the STEM and HASS communities in the university as well as external partners.

Prof Harch’s research has focused on the statistical design of landscape-scale sampling protocols and monitoring programs, as well as the statistical modelling of complex systems, particularly agri-environmental systems. This has seen her develop transdisciplinary research, engagement and commercialisation strategies with state and federal government and their agencies, Australian and global multi-national companies (e.g. Bayer, Orica, Boeing, AMP) and partnerships with research organisations (e.g a National Research Flagship Cluster, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NASA) – with a particular focus at the agri-environmental and informatics interface. She has held associate editor roles with several international journals and has recently contributed to the Australian Academy’s development of a Decadal Plan for Agriculture, for Mathematics and the Australia’s Ecosystem Science Decadal Plan. Bronwyn is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Science and Engineering (ATSE), an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), an Accredited Member of the Statistical Society of Australia Inc., and Past President of The International Environmetrics Society. ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7950-0790 ResearcherID:http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-3344-2008