Thursday 5 July, 2007
Plenary Address - "Building Capability of our Technical Workforce: From the technological revolution to the creative economy"

As Chief Executive Officer of IBSA, Sharon brings to the role knowledge and wisdom gained from the many positions she has held within the vocational education and training (VET) system. Sharon's immediate prior experience includes senior management roles with ANTA that involved leading system-wide VET reform and providing high-level advice to government, industry and public sector stakeholders.

Before joining ANTA, Sharon worked in a number of senior VET management roles including with the Victorian State Training Authority, the Adult and Further Education sector, and TAFE institutes.

Sharon has held two Ministerial appointments, one relating to national adult, language and literacy policy and the other relating to women's employment, education and training. She has also represented Australia in several international seminars and delegations.

As CEO of IBSA, key priorities for Sharon are to:

In turn, this will ensure Australia has the skills for local, national and international competitiveness.

Thursday 5 July, 2007
Keynote Address - "Nature's Fractal Patterns: an Inter-disciplinary Approach to Reducing People's Stress"

Richard Taylor is a Professor of Physics, Psychology and Art. Since gaining his Ph.D. in 1988 (Nottingham, UK), he has published over 200 research papers and has worked in the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, he trained as a painter at the Manchester School of Art (U.K.), and has a Masters Degree in Art Theory (University of New South Wales, Australia). Taylor has studied fractals and chaos in a diverse range of research fields, ranging from nano-electronics through to perception psychology, architecture and art.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

Friday 6 July, 2007
Keynote Address - "Great Moments In Science and Sustainability®"

Whenever the announcer gives out the phone number for Karl Kruszelnicki's famous Science Talkback show on Triple J, on Thursday mornings - so many calls come in that the ABC switchboard crashes!

Karl's media career began in 1981, when he started presenting 'Great Moments In Science ' on Double J to pay his way through medical school. Since then, his media career has exploded from radio to include TV, books, newspapers, magazines, scripting, professional speaking, and of course, the Net. His science homepage (which has well over 4 million words on it) gets about 700,000 pages downloaded each week (www.abc.net.au/science/k2).

He made his TV debut in 1985 as the presenter of the first series of Quantum. Since 1986 he has reported science as a regular on the Midday Show, Good Morning Australia (including a full-time stint in 1991-2 as the TV Weatherman and science reporter). He is currently a regular on Channel 7’s breakfast program Sunrise. He has recently completed two series on quirky weather topics for the Weather Channel on Foxtel. Karl also popularises science on radio stations across Australia and, on the BBC, for several hours each week.

Karl has written (so far) 24 books, beginning with ‘Great Moments In Science’ in 1984 and his latest book ‘Dis Information and other Wikkid Myths’ which was released in November 2005. According to the "New Scientist" Magazine Karl's last five books have all hit the position of best-selling Popular Science book in Australia.

In 1996 Karl was invited by the United States Information Agency to be a Distinguished Foreign Guest in their International Visitor Program. Previous Alumni of this program include Julius Nyere, Anwar Sadat, Indira Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher. As part of this program he visited NORAD, Dryden Air Force Base and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory – and got to sit in the front seat of an SR-71 Blackbird.

In August 2000 Karl was one of first eight Australian Apple Masters to be announced (there are fewer than 100 in the entire world). The Apple Masters Program celebrates the achievements of people who are changing the world through their passion and vision, while inspiring new approaches to creative thinking.

In 2002, Dr Karl was honoured with the prestigious Ig Nobel prize awarded by Harvard University in the USA for his ground-breaking research into “Belly Button Lint and why it is almost always blue”.

In September 2003, Dr Karl was bestowed wit the great honour of being named ‘Australian Father of the Year’.

Karl has degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and has worked as a physicist, tutor, film-maker, car mechanic, labourer, and as a medical doctor at the Kids' Hospital in Sydney.

In 1995 he took up the position of the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at Sydney University, spreading the good word about science and its benefits. His enthusiasm for science is totally infectious and no one is better able to convey the excitement and wonder of it all than Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is.

Dr. Karl's homepage - http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2