Larry R. Marshall
| Dr Larry Marshall | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sydney |
| Education | Macquarie University |
| Occupation | CEO of CSIRO |
| Employer | CSIRO |
| Known for |
Physicst Venture Capitalist Chief Executive |
| Website | CSIRO profile |
Larry R. Marshall is an Australian venture capitalist and physicist. In January 2015, he became chief executive of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency and one of the most multidisciplinary research organisations in the world.[1]
Dr Marshall was born in Sydney and he received both his undergraduate and postgraduate education, including a PhD in physics, at Macquarie University. His areas of specialisation include diode-pumped solid-state lasers[2] and laser stabilization.[3] He was a cadet scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.
He is a scientist, technology innovator and business leader with experience in developing and applying science. He has 25 years' experience as an international technology entrepreneur, is the inventor of 20 US patents[4] and has founded six successful United States companies in biotechnology, photonics, telecommunications and semiconductors.[5]
Dr Marshall has argued CSIRO is uniquely positioned to help tackle Australia's "innovation dilemma".
"Australians are great inventors: as a nation, we’re responsible for more than 100 great inventions, such as fast WiFi, ultrasound for medical imaging and the Cochlear implant. But of those, only one has built a great domestic tech company. This is our innovation dilemma."[6]
He credits the diversity of CSIRO as the driver behind its successes so far, and the foundation for its potential in the future.
"The genius and the power of CSIRO is distributed – it’s in our people, our partners and our community. We know a diversity of views is critical to innovation performance."[7]
In July 2015, Dr Marshall launched CSIRO's 5 year strategy for 2015-2020, "Australia's Innovation Catalyst". In a novel approach for the 90-year-old science body, it crowd-sourced ideas and suggestions from more than 7000 people including its research partners, other collaborators, its own staff and the public to help determine the direction of the strategy.
"Australia currently ranks 81st* in the world when it comes to innovation efficiency - the bang for our buck we get when we transform innovation investment into results. If that was a team sport ranking, we'd be outraged. As a country, we need to work together to improve this result. Australia's prosperity, health and sustainability is closely bound to our capacity for innovation – and CSIRO has a key role to play here."[8]
The strategy identifies a number of key ways CSIRO will deliver on its strategy: crowd sourcing; collaboration; entrepreneurialism; customer focus.[9]
In 2014, Dr Marshall had the distinction of being awarded the Australian Skeptics Bent Spoon award for his comments apparently endorsing the pseudoscience of water divining.[10]
References
- ↑ The Guardian, December 2014
- ↑ L. R. Marshall, Fiber stub end-pumped laser, US Patent 5,663,979 (1997).
- ↑ L. R. Marshall et al., Pulsed laser with passive stabilization, US Patent 5,982,789 (1999).
- ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2014
- ↑ "Dr Larry Marshall". people.csiro.au. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
- ↑ Marshall, Larry. "Innovation Challenge: teamwork drives realisation of great ideas". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
- ↑ "What the new head of CSIRO told us a month into the job". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
- ↑ "Science masterplan for Australia's growth - CSIRO". www.csiro.au. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
- ↑ "The ingredients (and our vision) for a smart society". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
- ↑ "Bent spoon for CSIRO head". Australian Skeptics Inc. Retrieved 2016-02-06.