Speakers
Anna-Maria Arabia OAM
Prof Elanor Huntington
Prof Patrick McGorry AO
Nim de Swardt
Session
Four of Australia's most consequential scientific voices in one conversation
Purpose: Australia grows world-class minds and world-changing ideas, yet often hesitates to claim its global impact. This session makes a radical case: our greatest opportunity isn’t just exporting resources—it’s leveraging our "brain trust" to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.
Discussion: This conversation goes beyond theory to expose where Australia’s biggest breakthroughs are accelerating, where innovation is stalling, and where critical funding gaps remain unresolved. The panel will identify the catalytic-capital opportunities too early, complex, or unconventional for traditional funding models — but too important to ignore.
Outcomes: A high-conviction map of the most important opportunities shaping Australia’s future in science. The session concludes with a direct challenge to the room from some of the country’s most senior institutional voices: what must be backed now to ensure Australia leads globally, rather than follows.
Anna-Maria is Chief Executive at the Australian Academy of Science, an independent organisation of distinguished Australian scientists, championing science for the benefit of all. Starting her career as a neuroscientist, Anna-Maria has worked nationally and globally in scientific research, policy development, politics and advocacy.
Her leadership has led to significant reform at the science–policy interface. She has established novel mechanisms to facilitate evidence-informed decision making in parliaments and the justice system; spear headed new approaches to science communication; and implemented global initiatives to make visible under represented scientists.
She provides policy advice to the highest levels of government in Australia and contributes to global policy for a, most recently leading the establishment of the International Science Council Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific.
In 2025, Anna-Maria was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to science, particularly through organisational leadership roles. She has also earnt the Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy for her constant commitment to promoting the role of science in society and her determination in enabling young and diverse people to access science. Anna-Maria is routinely called upon to serve as an agent of change.
Professor Elanor Huntington is the Deputy Chief Executive at CSIRO where she leads strategy and external engagement for CSIRO. She joined CSIRO in November 2021 as Executive Director, Digital, National Facilities and Collections, where she led the organisation’s data-focused research, development, and digital capability, and was responsible for major national research infrastructure, including the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, the Marine National Facility, and the Australia Telescope National Facility.
Professor Huntington holds a PhD in experimental quantum optics and is an established senior leader with several Board appointments. Prior to joining CSIRO, Professor Huntington was Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University, where she drove significant transformation within the College and across the sector. She is passionate about raising the profile of STEM in the community, breaking down barriers to participation, and attracting diverse talent to the field.
Professor Patrick McGorry AO is one of the world’s most influential leaders in youth mental health, internationally recognised for reshaping how mental illness is understood and treated in young people. He is Executive Director, Orygen, Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, and a Founding Director, headspace, which has transformed access to care across Australia and beyond. McGorry’s pioneering work in early intervention has informed clinical practice and policy worldwide. In 2024, he led a global consortium of world-leading experts to deliver a definitive analysis of youth mental health, published in The Lancet Psychiatry. He was named Australian of the Year in 2010.
Nim de Swardt chairs the PWN Family Wealth Peer Group (QLD) and is Australia’s leading family storyteller. For 17 years, Nim has been cultivating Narrative Capital™ within significant families. Formerly the world’s first Chief Next Generation Officer at a US$16B, seventh-generation family enterprise and Guest Faculty at the Modern Elder Academy, teaching ‘Intergenerational Wisdom Sharing’. Nim draws on two decades in communications, narrative psychology, narrative therapy, storytelling science, and human-centred design. She is currently completing her Master’s research on how narrative practices can build legacy capital in significant families.
Associate Professor Clare Arnott is a Staff Specialist Cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She is the Pagent Family Director of Heart Lung Clinical Research at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. She is a clinical triallist in Cardio-kidney-metabolic medicine and the Director of the Global Cardiovascular Program at the George Institute for Global health.
A/Prof. Arnott obtained her MBBS (Hons) and PhD at the University of Sydney, and her medical training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital. She has fellowships in Women’s Cardiovascular Disease (Churchill Fellowship, Mayo Clinic and Stanford University USA); echocardiography (US echocardiography board certified 2019), and cardiac MRI (RPA, 2016), and she established Australia's first Women's Heart Clinic (RPA hospital). She currently holds an MRFF Investigator Grant and a NSW health fellowship. She was awarded the Cardiovascular Research Network (CVRN) Ministerial rising star award for academic excellence in 2022. In addition, she has received >$35 million in peer review funding from NHMRC, MRFF and the National Heart Foundation.
She has published >140 peer reviewed manuscripts, has served as the national Clinical Stream Lead for the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting, is an Associate Editor for Heart Lung and Circulation, is an Executive team Member of Australia and New Zealand Alliance for CV trials, and is a Fellow of European Society of Cardiology and CSANZ.