CHEMISTRY

Dr Alex Zelinsky has commenced as full-time Director of the CSIRO ICT Centre after a transitional period from his former role as CEO of Seeing Machines Pty Limited. Alex Zelinsky is a well-known scientist, specialising in robotics and computer vision and widely recognised as an important innovator in the field of human-machine interaction. Welcoming Dr Zelinsky to CSIRO, Chief Executive Dr Geoff Garrett said that he brought a combination of scientific excellence, commercialisation experience and business acumen. "Alex will be invaluable in the success of CSIRO's re-invention of its ICT research," Dr Garrett said. "The ICT Centre is about delivering the benefits of ICT innovation across all industry sectors and positioning Australia to compete globally. Alex Zelinsky is the ideal choice to lead this endeavour." Dr Zelinsky said that he was looking forward to working with Australia's largest research organisation. "ICT is an enabler across many of the areas of science in which CSIRO excels and that raises all sorts of exciting possibilities," he said. Dr Zelinsky worked as a Research Scientist at the MITI Electrotechnical Laboratory, Japan, before establishing a research program in vision based robots at the Australian National University. He has developed robots that could autonomously navigate in cluttered dynamic environments and that could understand human gestures and intention. In July 2000, Zelinsky launched Seeing Machines to commercialise research sponsored by the Australian National University and Volvo Technology. Seeing Machines has become established as a world leader in the computer vision industry, recognized for excellence in both technology and business. Alex Zelinsky's contributions to science have been recognised by numerous awards in Australia and internationally. These include the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (1999 and 2001), Australian Eureka Science Prize (2002), US R&D magazine Top 100 Award (2002). In December 2002 he was elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In October 2003 The Bulletin Magazine named him in the annual Smart 100 list of influential Australians. The World Economic Forum has selected him as a Technology Pioneer for the 2003 & 2004 Fora