Reimaging our Future Planet

Given the pace of change, casting one’s imagination out more than ten years is guaranteed to land out of bounds. What, then, can we anticipate for 2034? This talk will match reality-checks and ambition to anticipate the progress in tackling climate-change, viewpoint diversity, truth in media, AI in classrooms, and AI everywhere. The biggest challenge of all is for communities and leaders to work collaboratively for better outcomes, despite their different backgrounds, incentives and belief systems.

Alan Finkel

Dr Alan Finkel AC is a neuroscientist, engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Career highlights include 23 years as CEO of Axon Instruments, three years as President of the Australian Academy of Engineering and eight years as Chancellor of Monash University. Alan was Australia’s Chief Scientist from 2016 to 2020. During that time, he led the National Electricity Market Review, the development of the National Hydrogen Strategy, the panel that advised the Australian Government on the Low Emissions Technology Roadmap, chaired the National Contact Tracing Review, was deputy chair of Innovation and Science Australia, and chaired the National Review of Industry and School Partnerships in STEM Education. As Special Adviser to the Australian Government on Low Emissions Technologies in 2021 and 2022, he brokered bilateral low-emissions technology partnerships between Australia and each of seven key countries, chaired the Australian Government-hosted Sydney Energy Forum and led a review of the US Inflation Reduction Act. He was co-founder and Chair of Cosmos Magazine, and Chief Technology Officer of Better Place Australia. He is currently Chair of Stile Education, Chair of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Biotechnology and a corporate adviser on climate change technologies. His book, Powering Up, was published last June 2023.