John Finnigan received his BSc from the University of Manchester in 1968 and his PhD from the Australian National University in 1978. From 1989 to 1995 he was Head of the CSIRO Centre for Environmental Mechanics, and a Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO Divisions of Land and Water and, later, Marine and Atmospheric Research. Since 2001 he has been the Director of the CSIRO Centre for Complex Systems Science. He is heavily involved with the European and US programs on measuring the global carbon cycle and is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the international science program, Interactions between Land Ecosystems and Atmospheric Processes, an initiative of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. His research interests include atmospheric science, from detailed fluid dynamics to the role of biosphere-atmosphere exchange in climate dynamics, to complex systems science. In particular he is engaged in research on the ways that human decision making and societal dynamics can be captured quantitatively in models of the earth system.

Connecting the biosphere to the atmosphere
by Dr John Finnigan

Growing concerns about climate change in the last three decades have forced a revolution in our understanding of the connections between the terrestrial biosphere and active constituents of the atmosphere such as greenhouse gases, water vapour aerosols, heat and momentum. Quantifying these connections in international Programs like the FLUXNET has stretched our knowledge of the way that atmospheric motion controls these exchanges. In his talk, John will show how the application of experiment and theory to living forest canopies at sites across the world have reshaped our understanding of the way that turbulent transport, vegetation and topography interact to modulate the breathing of the biosphere and illustrate the novel flow phenomena that have been revealed along the way.

Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture

Professor Peter Hall
What excites statisticians today?

New Fellows Seminar

Professor David Celermajer
Childhood origins of heart disease: The window of opportunity for cardiac prevention

Professor Ian Dawes
Oxidative stress and cell ageing

Dr John Finnigan
Connecting the biosphere to the atmosphere

Professor Min Gu
Probe life through modern optical microscopy

Professor Richard Harvey
Cell to organ: Exploring the genetic basis of the origins and patterning of the mammalian heart

Professor David Hill
Network science: The importance of getting connected

Professor John Hopwood
The body as an effective recycler

Professor David James
Type 2 diabetes: A disease of the future

Professor Douglas MacFarlane
Ionic liquids: New solvents from old salts

Dr Rana Munns
Adaptations of plants to drought and salinity stress

Dr Stephen Rintoul
The global influence of the Southern Ocean circulation

Professor Stephen Simpson
A tale of paintbrushes, cannibal crickets and human obesity

Professor Gordon Wallace
Nanobionics: What role can organic conductors play?

Professor Alan Welsh
Modelling and analysis of clustered data