Expert Advisory Panel 

Watertrust Australia is supported by an Expert Advisory Panel of highly regarded experts in water, catchments and policy areas associated with these. 

The panel comprises a group of outstanding individuals with significant experience and expertise whose role it is to assist Watertrust Australia synthesise evidence and broker knowledge between knowledge communities and water and catchment sector stakeholders and governments. The panel members will help Watertrust establish and nurture relevant expert knowledge and research partnerships, and build a reputation for rigorous independent evidence synthesis and knowledge brokerage that leads to improved water and catchment policy decisions in Australia.

The Chair and Deputy Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel are Prof Rob Vertessy and Rod Marsh, respectively.

Prof Snow Barlow FTSE

Snow is an Emeritus Professor at The University of Melbourne. He has worked in climate change research for more than 30 years, beginning with some of the first studies of the impacts of elevated carbon dioxide on forest and crop plant growth and development. He was a chief scientist with the federal Department of Primary Industries and Energy and participated as a member of the Australian delegation for Kyoto Protocol negotiations.

Prof Allan Dale

Allan is a Professor of Tropical Regional Development at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University and the Chief Scientist for the CRC for Developing Northern Australia. He is also a University Fellow with Charles Darwin University’s Northern Institute and has a strong interest in integrated societal governance, with a particular focus across the tropical world, northern Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.

Prof Katherine Daniell

Katherine is a Professor and transdisciplinary academic at The Australian National University's School of Cybernetics, Fenner School of Environment and Society, and Institute for Water Futures. Trained in engineering, arts and public policy, her work bridges multiple domains including multi-level governance, participatory processes, risk management, sustainability science, river basin management, urban and regional development, politics and cultures of innovation, cybernetics theory and praxis, and international science and technology cooperation.

Prof John Dryzek FASSA

John is Centenary Professor in the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. One of the founders of the deliberative approach to democratic theory and practice, he also works extensively in environmental governance and politics.

Dr Steve Hatfield-Dodds

Steve has worked for more than two decades at the intersection of sustainability research, public policy, and business strategy. He was recently Executive Director of ABARES – the economics and science bureau of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry – and before that led CSIRO’s integration science and modelling. Steve was lead author of the Australian National Outlook (2015) and the scenario lead for the UNEP Global Resource Outlook (2019), along with papers in Nature, Science, Ecological Economics and other journals.

Prof Carolyn Hendriks

Carolyn is a Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University with a background in political science and environmental engineering. She has published widely on the democratic aspects of contemporary governance, including participation, public deliberation, inclusion and representation.

Prof Mark Howden FTSE

Mark is Director of the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at The Australian National University, an Honorary Professor at The University of Melbourne, a Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council. He has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for over 30 years in partnership with many industry, community and policy groups via both research and science-policy roles. 

Prof Stuart Khan FTSE

Stuart is a Professor and Head of School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the presence, implications and treatment of contaminants in water systems including drinking water, waste water, recycled water and the environment.

Dr Erin O'Donnell

Erin is a Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne Law School and a water law and policy expert. She is recognised internationally for her research into the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers, and the challenges and opportunities these new rights create for protecting the multiple social, cultural and natural values of rivers. She works in partnership with First Nations to progress their rights and interests in water.

Prof Jamie Pittock

Jamie is Professor in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University. His research from 2007 has focused on better governance of the interlinked issues of water management, energy and food supply, responding to climate change and conserving biological diversity.

Dr Carmel Pollino

Carmel is a Research Director for Land and Water at CSIRO. She has 20 years' experience working on water issues in Australia and throughout Asia. She has degrees in science and environmental law and works across the science and policy interface.

Prof Jacki Schirmer

Jacki is a Professor at the University of Canberra where she leads the Regional Wellbeing Survey team. Her research focuses on understanding how to support wellbeing and resilience of people and communities across Australia in ways that also support the health of the environment.

Prof Fran Sheldon

Fran is Professor and Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Griffith Sciences group at Griffith University and a Research Member in the Australian Rivers Institute. Her research explores the relationships between hydrology, physical geomorphology and ecology in river systems, particularly large dryland rivers such as those of the Murray–Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre Basin.

Prof Craig Simmons FAA FTSE

Craig is a leading groundwater scientist, recognised for major contributions to groundwater science, science leadership, education and policy reform. He is Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Newcastle and has diverse and interdisciplinary research interests and expertise in essential areas of groundwater hydrology, hydrological science, environmental science, earth science, geoscience and applied physical and engineering sciences.

Prof Geoff Syme

Geoff has a long-standing interest in multidisciplinary approaches to human decision-making, planning processes, and natural resources management. He was Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO’s Land and Water Division and Director of two centres within CSIRO: the Australian Research Centre for Water in Society and Water Security and Sustainable Communities. He continues to publish widely internationally and is a member of the editorial boards of several prominent journals.

Prof Poh-Ling Tan

Poh-Ling is an Emeritus Professor at Griffith University and is recognised as one of the foremost water governance experts in Australia. She serves on a number of state/national boards and advisory committees and has over 35 years of work in legal practice and academia with expertise spanning property law, legal systems to water resource law and governance.

Assoc Prof Simon Toze

Simon obtained his PhD in Environmental Microbiology from The University of Queensland in 1992 and work with CSIRO from 1994 to 2021 on a range of water and urban-based topics. He now runs the consultancy Urban Water Futures. He is also an Honorary Principal Fellow with the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology at The University of Queensland.

Glen Walker

Glen is a groundwater hydrologist, who worked with CSIRO in Adelaide for over 30 years before setting up his own consultancy, Grounded in Water. He specialises in salinity and groundwater sustainability.

Assoc Prof Carina Wyborn

Carina holds an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award at The Australian National University’s Institute for Water Futures and is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a background in science and technology studies and human ecology. She works at the intersection of science, policy and practice, where she is interested in understanding how decisions are made in complex and contested environmental management challenges.