Board

Bob Watts
President

Following his retirement at the beginning of 2004, Professor Bob Watts (FAA, FTSE, FRACI) has worked part time as a technology consultant.

Bob became Vice President & Chief Scientist of Technology for Broken Hill Pty Ltd in February 2002. In this role, Bob was responsible for providing Technology development throughout the BHP Billiton Group. He managed teams to develop and transfer research findings to industry, including establishing feasibility trials and taking results through to commercialisation.

Professor Watts joined BHP in 1997 as Chief Scientist. In his earlier role Bob was responsible for ensuring technology standards across the Company including new capital projects and interaction with University and other external R&D providers.

He has considerable experience in change management, and has designed and implemented new structures in computer management (University of Washington, Australian National University) and academic departments (University of Melbourne, University of Washington). While with BHP Billiton he designed and implemented new management systems to ensure smooth operation of the Technology function post-merger.

Professor Watts has extensive experience in computational chemistry; modelling of complex molecular systems; experimental atomic and molecular physics; R&D in an industrial setting; problem solving in the resource industry; management issues in complex commercial settings. Bob also has extensive experience in research and teaching roles in Universities in Canada, the USA and Australia.

Bob Watts serves on several advisory bodies, including the Australian Research Council and several Universities. He is President-Elect of the RACI Inc.

Back to top

David Wood
President - Elect

David is a chemical engineer with both his first degree and his PhD from the University of London. Three years of chemistry was mandatory for the first degree and this enabled David to qualify for professional recognition by chemistry societies as well as engineering institutions. Most of David's career has been in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Melbourne but he has also had experience in the oil industry and the engineering consulting and contracting industry.
David was head of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University for 14 years and he then became Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and of Engineers Australia as well as of the RACI. He was formerly Vice President of the UK based IChemE and he was an early editor of Chemical Engineering in Australia (print form). Whilst at the University David led a research group investigating the production of TiO2 using fluoride technology. His research also included the treatment of spent potlining from the Aluminium industry. In his later years at the University he and his colleagues undertook a major project on the production of ultra clean coal using fluoride technology.
During his career David has been awarded the RACI Murphy medal, the Chemeca medal, the Esso award for education and the Arnold Green medal for his contribution to the profession of Chemical Engineering. In May David is to be awarded the IChemE Council medal for his work in China.
Since leaving the University David has been involved in consulting for a number of oil companies and for the Federal Government with respect to jet fuel supply. He is also working with nine universities in China with the aim of assisting them obtain accreditation for their chemical engineering degrees. As a result of this work Tianjin University has recently received accreditation for its chemical engineering degree by the IChemE, the first to receive such accreditation in China. David was made an Honorary Professor of Tianjin University in late 2008.
David currently chairs the Chemistry in Australia Management Committee.

Back to top

Frances Separovic
Honorary General Treasurer

Professor Frances Separovic is a Biophysical Chemist who specializes in NMR spectroscopy, teaches undergraduate Chemistry and is deputy head of School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne. After 23 years working at CSIRO, including a year at National Institutes of Health (USA), Frances joined the University of Melbourne in 1996.  Frances has developed solid-state NMR techniques to determine the structure and dynamics of membrane components in situ, specializing in peptide antibiotics and toxins within phospholipid membranes. As well as serving as vice-president of the Victorian Branch of RACI (2007-2008), she was elected to Council of the Biophysical Society (USA) for 2007-2010; Treasurer of Lorne Protein Conference (2006-2009), Council of International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics, IUPAB (2002-2005); President of the Australian Society for Biophysics, ASB (1999-2001); Director of Australian New Zealand Magnetic Resonance Society, ANZMAG (1996-2000); and is an editorial board member of Concepts in Magnetic Resonance and Biochimica Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes. Frances has successfully organized 25 national or international scientific conferences and published over 130 refereed papers in international journals. Frances has served on a number of University of Melbourne Committees, including: Research & Graduate Studies, Academic Programs, Melbourne Scholarships Policy, Undergraduate Scholarships, Postgraduate Scholarships, Selection Procedures, Libraries Committee, Writing Centre Advisory Board and was Assistant Dean (EO) of the Science Faculty (2001 and 2002).

Back to top

Vicki-Anne Gardiner
Honorary General Secretary

In February 2008, Dr Vicki Gardiner took up the position of Senior Project Chemist at Marinova, a Tasmanian biotechnology company dedicated to the development of biological actives from marine macroalgae. Prior to that, she was employed by AusIndustry, the division of the Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research. While working at AusIndustry, Vicki was responsible for assisting Tasmanian companies across many industry sectors access grant and entitlement programs such as the innovation programs Commercial Ready and the R&D Tax Concession, as well as business skills development programs.
Vicki graduated from the University of New England in 1993 and completed her PhD in 1997 at Monash University. After holding postdoctoral positions at the University of Southampton and the University of New South Wales, she took up an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Tasmania in 2000 with her research interests being in organometallic chemistry. In 2005 Vicki completed a Graduate Certificate of Management, majoring in Project Management.
Vicki has been a Committee member of the Tasmanian Branch since 2001. During this time she has held the Hon. Secretary and Hon. President positions. She has been particularly active in promoting chemistry in schools, coordinating the Tasmanian Titration Competition from 2001 - 2006 and starting the Crystal Growing Competition in the State in 2006. In 2007 she was the Project Coordinator for the four RACI projects developing online primary and VCE teacher resources, funded through the Australian School Innovation in Science, Technology and Mathematics program. Vicki has also been the Tasmania State Representative on the Inorganic Division Committee since 2003

Back to top

Roger Read
National Representative

Associate Professor Roger Read is currently Senior Associate Dean and Associate Dean, Research & International, in the Faculty of Science, and has held a teaching and research position in the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales since 1985. He was awarded BSc and PhD from the University of Sydney and has held research positions at Imperial College, London (1977-1978), University of Auckland (1979), University of Melbourne (1980-1982) and the Defence, Science and Technology Organisation, Maribyrnong (1982-1984).

Associate Professor Read has published over 65 internationally journal articles and book chapters in the fields of natural products chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry and heterocyclic chemistry, and is co-inventor on 5 patents. His current research focus is on synthetic chemistry related to diagnostic agents for age-related disease and the study of drugs of addition, applications of fluorous chemistry and the design of novel ligand systems. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Marburg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Pittsburgh, and been engaged in commercialisation of his research through two start-up companies.

He is the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, Vielberth Lectureship and Cytopia Lectureship, is a Fellow and Member of the Board of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and is a member of the Academic (International) Advisory Board of ACTA Manilana.

Back to top

Joe Shapter
Western Representative

Professor Joe Shapter was educated in Canada first completing a BSc(Hons) in chemistry from Memorial University of Newfoundland followed by a PhD from the University of Toronto in 1990 working with Prof. J. C. Polanyi on the detection of small molecules and the determination of their energies. From 1990 to 1996, he worked at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario) building a scanning tunnelling microscope and lecturing first year chemistry.
In 1996 he moved to Flinders University and is now a Professor in Chemistry and Nanotechnology. He led the establishment of, and is now course coordinator, for the Flinders Bachelor of Science Degree in Nanotechnology (2000-2003, 2007- present). This was the first degree of its kind in the world. In research, his group works generally in the area of Nanotechnology using various techniques to examine material on the micron or nanometer scale. His group builds phospholipid bilayers on substrates such as mica and uses physical techniques to examine properties and dynamics on the micron scale. Work with chemical attachment of carbon nanotubes to surfaces with both patterned and unpatterned approaches is also an active area of research in his group.
He has been a member of the RACI since his arrival in Australia and has served the RACI in a variety of roles in South Australia including times as both Branch President and Honorary Branch Secretary.

Back to top

Curt Wentrup
North Eastern Representative

Back to top

Alan French                                                                                        South Eastern Representative

At BHP’s Corporate Occupational, Health, Safety and Environmental Department he designed, developed and implemented a company-wide computer-based management system for all chemicals used or produced within BHP. Following a time as an independent occupational health and safety consultant he joined CSL as their corporate Occupational Health and Safety Manager and then had a brief time at Western Mining Corporation as their Group Manager, Health before that company’s amalgamation with BHP.

 From 2002 until 2007, Alan was the RACI Victorian Branch Coordinator while continuing his part-time role as an occupational health consultant. He won the Innovation and Commendation Awards for his work on the Branch’s Employment Working Party. He has served on the Branch Committee a number of times. Alan became a Fellow of the RACI in 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2005.

Back to top