Dr Ron Sandland

• Joined: 2019
• Current term end date: 30 June 2025

After graduating B.Sc. with honours in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Sydney, Dr Ron Sandland joined CSIRO, completing his PhD at the University of New South Wales. He spent 20 years as an applied statistical researcher, with interests in applying statistics to solve challenging real problems in areas as diverse as growth of organisms, ore-reserve estimation, analysis of mark-recapture experiments, theoretical actuarial science and quality improvement. This period led to more than fifty research publications.

In 1988 he was appointed Chief of CSIRO’s Division of Mathematics and Statistics, presiding over a period of significant growth, development of major industrial engagements, and the instigation of a number of new strategic research areas.

Ron became Deputy Chief Executive in 1989 with executive oversight of several major initiatives, including the Science Investment Process and the National Flagship Initiative, certainly at that time the most ambitious multi-disciplinary science program undertaken by an Australian research institution. The latter program attracted $500 million of new government investment. He was CSIRO lead on its major international research program with Boeing which led to significant investment in collaborative research between Boeing and CSIRO.

After retiring from CSIRO in 2007 he led or participated in a number of major reviews, including CSIR South Africa, the Crown Research Institutes New Zealand, and the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute. Ron developed investment plans for National Collaborative Research Infrastructure projects in population health (PHRN) and urban research (AURIN) and led a review of Australia’s publicly funded data infrastructure capabilities leading to the development of the Australian Research Data Infrastructure Strategy. From 2015 to 2017 he led a three-year Technical Advisory Forum established to investigate the statistical practices underpinning the Bureau of Meteorology’s national daily climate record.

In 2012 Ron and Graham Thompson published – “Icon in Crisis – the reinvention of CSIRO”, shortlisted for the Ashurst Business Literature Prize.

He has had several significant engagements with the University of Melbourne: he was foundation Chair of the board of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Risk Analysis (ACREA, later CEBRA) and continues to serve as Chair of the AMSI Board and the governance advisory board of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers. He has also been Chair of the Australian National Data Service since its inception and is working closely with the Universities of Melbourne, Queensland and Monash to align the three national data infrastructure capabilities. Ron serves as Pro-Chancellor on the Council of the University of Technology Sydney. From the beginning of 2018 he has taken on the role of Chair of the Advisory Board of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility.

Ron is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, and an Honorary Life Member of the Statistical Society of Australia. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001, the CSIRO Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2006 and was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2007. In 2017 Ron was given an Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Melbourne.