Scientific Panel
Dr Sophie Bickford PhD
Chief Scientist
Sophie's previous role was with the CSIRO in the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research. Originally trained as a botanist, her research is now in the fields of macro-ecology, palaeoecology and biodiversity conservation.
As Chief Scientist for Carbon Planet, Sophie provides advice on plant physiology, agricultural and horticultural systems and the roles these systems play in buffering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Her expertise is applied in the vetting of carbon sequestration tree planting schemes for their likely success and in ensuring environmental benefits include biodiversity care and soil conservation.
Dr Marnie Telfer PhD
Senior Research Auditor
Marnie's chemical engineering PhD, completed in 1999, focused on acid-rain abatement for low-rank coal gasification systems. Awarded a fellowship with the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Engineering, Marnie became a postdoctoral fellow with the National Risk Management Laboratory, U.S. EPA, investigating the fate of chlorine species during combustion of municipal solid waste.
Marnie has published seven scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals and has presented her work at seven international conferences.
Dr John Sanderson PhD
Senior Emissions Auditor
After completing his doctorate in 2002, John worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist for the CRC for Clean Power from Lignite and CSIRO Minerals in Melbourne. His research work encompassed novel gasification technologies for biomass and fossil fuels, industrial process development and scale-up, energy efficiency and waste heat recovery. He has also worked on the commercialisation of a small-scale gasification module for waste-wood.
John has penned numerous technical reports, is the author of four scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and has presented his work at 11 international conferences.
Dr Davide Ross PhD
Senior Research Auditor
Since completing his doctorate in 1999, Davide has worked as a research engineer and postdoctoral fellow for the CRC for Clean Power from Lignite. In 2003 he was awarded a prestigious two year JSPS International Postdoctoral Scholarship to attend a leading university in Tokyo to undertake further research into renewable energy projects focused on the development of technologies to use biomass (wood waste) for generating distributed power, the recycling of PVC and waste glass, and the prototype development of a charcoal stove.
Davide has published 12 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals and has presented at 15 international conferences.
Dr Helen Chandler
Senior Emissions Auditor
Helen has a PhD in biomolecular archaeology from the University of Oxford, supported by an Honours degree in biochemistry, with a secondary major in applied mathematics, from the University of Adelaide. Her doctoral research used the tools of population genetics and bioinformatics to investigate past human population movements.
In 2002 she moved to The Netherlands where she worked as assistant communications officer for the international secretariat of Friends of the Earth, a large grassroots nonfigovernmental environmental organisation. Subsequently she worked as Scientific Manager for The Arts & Genomics Centre, based at the University of Amsterdam, where she facilitated interactions between artists and scientists to promote public engagement with science.
Samuel Phua
Senior Emissions Auditor
Sam has submitted his PhD in Biochemical Engineering and is completing a Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Commercialisation at the University of Adelaide.
In 2004, Sam was awarded an Early Career Symposium Fellowship by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences. His other awards include a University of Adelaide Research Abroad Scholarship and a Commonwealth Government Commercialisation Training Scheme Scholarship.
Sam has four scientific publications and two book reviews in peer-reviewed international journals and has presented his work at five national and international conferences.
Adrian Morphett
Senior Emissions Auditor
After gaining his Mechanical Engineering (Hons) degree, Adrian recently submitted for assessment a multi-disciplinary PhD in biomechanics, rheumatology and ergonomics. As an IT and OHS business analyst, one of many roles in avaried career,Adrian facilitated business requirements capturing, functional design and end-user testing of custom IT systems, amongst other expert advice. Adrian's work in the petrochemical industry, in the specialised area of shutdown maintenance, included project planning and management roles. In academia, Adrian has provided advanced statistical analysis of research data and lectured in mechanical engineering.
Adrian has presented at several conferences and authored a number of papers, including one peer-reviewed.
Dr Julianno Sambatti PhD
Scientific Advisor — Canada
Julianno achieved his PhD by the University of California at Davis. He is originally from Brazil where he started his career as an agronomist participating in restoration projects in the Atlantic rainforest, and the assessment of environmental impacts of large construction projects such as highways, pipelines and bridges.
At Carbon Planet, Julianno provides scientific expertise in Botany and Ecology.
Ben Kenney
Emissions Auditor — Canada
Ben is working towards a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Queen's University in Canada. His research involves the development of solid oxide fuel cell cathodes. Ben has two scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and has presented his work at a number of international conferences.
Dr Srini Sundaram PhD
Emissions Auditor — UK
Srini works as a consultant for Automotive Emission Control Solutions in the areas of application data analysis, control solutions processing algorithm and software IP development skills in real time environments.
Matthew Bolton
Research — UK
Matthew is currently finishing his PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He has gained valuable experience in the diverse field of mathematical modeling in such areas as heat transfer, fiuid dynamics, acoustics, and electrochemical modeling.
After graduating from UEA with a first class MMath degree, Matthew went to work for British Aerospace, where he worked as a C++ programmer devising algorithms of a geographical nature. Matthew's experience will be useful to Carbon Planet - for example in calculating the effect of employing more sensible fiight paths for airplanes, which could represent a huge carbon emission reduction strategy.