The Observer of National Science
Dr Alan Finkel AC · Chief Scientist of Australia, 2016–2020
About the sitter
Dr Alan Finkel AC
Alan Finkel trained as an electrical engineer and worked as a neuroscientist before founding Axon Instruments in Silicon Valley, where he developed instrumentation that made it possible to record the electrical activity of single cells with far greater speed and precision. The company’s tools became standard equipment in laboratories worldwide and substantially accelerated the pace of drug research. He later served as Chancellor of Monash University, and founded Cosmos magazine and the science education company Stile.
As Australia’s eighth Chief Scientist, from 2016 to 2020, he led the National Electricity Market Review and the development of Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy, and chaired the panel behind the Low Emissions Technology Roadmap. At the onset of the pandemic he established the Rapid Research Information Forum, which assembled the country’s research capacity to answer questions from government at short notice. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2022, one of seven that year.
Full profile — Encyclopedia of Australian Science (opens in a new tab)
About the painting
Finkel’s work has been the measurement apparatus of the country itself: evidence gathered, reviewed and handed to people who must decide. He is the first work in the series, and the one that set its terms. The portrait was acquired by the sitter.