Three questions for Chris
What has your career looked like to date?
After completing a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Melbourne, I joined CSIRO as a Postdoctoral Fellow looking at transport of fluids in porous media. This was a new field for me, but the skills that I developed during my postgraduate studies allowed me to quickly transition to this new area, where I have been fortunate to work with an outstanding team of scientists.
What do you do in your current position?
I work in the Energy business unit, where everything we do is focused on the transition to net-zero carbon emissions. I have done a lot of work on underground storage of CO2, which is interesting due to its potential as a mitigation strategy for emissions, but also due to the interesting and complex physics involved.
Initially, a lot of the work I did was analytical, whereas now I perform a lot of numerical modelling using our high-performance computing resources. CSIRO is heavily invested in the emerging hydrogen economy, and my team is exploring many aspects of this such as large-scale storage in depleted gas reservoirs – a new field for us but one where we can use our experience in modelling fluid flow in porous media.
How has your mathematics/statistics training been useful in your career?
The ability to rapidly transition to a new research area has been one of the most important skills that having a mathematical background has allowed, giving me confidence that I can make a meaningful contribution in any project that I am involved in.
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