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Larry R. Marshall

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Larry Marshall
Born
Sydney
EducationMacquarie University
OccupationCEO of CSIRO
EmployerCSIRO
Known forPhysicst
Venture Capitalist
Chief Executive
WebsiteCSIRO 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]

Marshall was born in Sydney and he received both his undergraduate and postgraduate education, including a PhD in physics, at Macquarie University. He was a cadet scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

Marshall's career include periods both in technology development and the business world. He has 25 years' experience as an international technology entrepreneur and has founded six US companies in the areas of biotechnology, photonics, telecommunications, and semiconductors.[2]. He is the inventor of some 20 US patents[3]

Laser development

At Macquarie University, Marshall performed research with J. A. Piper on stimulated Raman scattering.[4][5] While in the United States his research work was mainly on the development of parametric oscillators,[6] diode laser-pumped solid-state lasers,[7] fiber lasers,[8] and laser stabilization.[9]

CSIRO

As Chief Executive of CSIRO, Marshall has argued that this organization 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."[10]

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."[11]

In July 2015, 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."[12]

The strategy identifies a number of key ways CSIRO will deliver on its strategy: crowd sourcing; collaboration; entrepreneurialism; customer focus.[13]

Controversy over climate research cutbacks

Australian and international scientists have criticized Marshall's cutbacks to Csiro's basic research, particularly on climate change. Csiro announced layoffs of 350 researchers in the agency's shift to more commercial enterprises. The cutbacks included the Cape Grim research station in northwestern Tasmania, which has measured airborne greenhouse gases since 1976, and Australia's participation in the Argo ocean observation program, which has 3,800 floats about 180 miles apart, which collect data on sea currents, salinity and temperature. A petition by 3,000 scientists from more than 60 countries called the cuts “devastating” and said that research stations like Cape Grim are “critical and irreplaceable” to global climate science, because they will monitor how well other countries are complying with their international agreements. One scientist said that basic research on climate change was particularly important to Australia, which was particularly vulnerable with its desert, wildfires, and drought. Cisro officials said that the measurements at Cape Grim and Argo would continue, but scientists said that the climate science team would lose 70 to 100 scientists, which would leave them unable to manage and interpret the data that they are collecting.[14][15][16][17]

Skeptics criticism

In 2014, Marshall was awarded the Australian Skeptics Bent Spoon award for being the “perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo-scientific piffle” after publicly endorsing water divining. Marshall said that it is Cisro's’s job to “push the envelope”.[18]

References

  1. ^ The Guardian, December 2014
  2. ^ "Dr Larry Marshall". people.csiro.au. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  3. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald, October 2014
  4. ^ L. R. Marshall and J. A. Piper, Transient stimulated Raman scattering in lead vapor, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 26, 1098 - 1104 (1990).
  5. ^ L. R. Marshall and J. A. Piper, Accumulation of Raman gain between closely spaced pulse pairs, Opt. Lett. 1345-1347 (1990).
  6. ^ L. R. Marshall and A. Kaz, Eye-safe output from noncritically phase-matched parametric oscillators, JOSA B 10, 1730-1736(1993)
  7. ^ L. R. Marshall, J. Kasinski, and R. L. Burnham, Diode-pumped eye-safe laser source exceeding 1% efficiency, Opt. Lett. 21, 1680-1682(1991).
  8. ^ L. R. Marshall, Fiber stub end-pumped laser, US Patent 5,663,979 (1997).
  9. ^ L. R. Marshall et al., Pulsed laser with passive stabilization, US Patent 5,982,789 (1999).
  10. ^ Marshall, Larry. "Innovation Challenge: teamwork drives realisation of great ideas". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  11. ^ "What the new head of CSIRO told us a month into the job". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  12. ^ "Science masterplan for Australia's growth - CSIRO". www.csiro.au. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  13. ^ "The ingredients (and our vision) for a smart society". News @ CSIRO. Retrieved 2015-10-02.
  14. ^ Scientists Protest Cuts and Commercialization at Australian Climate Center, By MICHELLE INNIS, New York Times, FEB. 27, 2016
  15. ^ 'Maybe I'm naive': CSIRO's Larry Marshall tries again to explain deep staff cuts, Peter Hannam, The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 2016
  16. ^ Backlash against CSIRO’s ‘cowboy’ chief Larry Marshall; As Larry Marshall signals cuts to various programs, CSIRO staff say he is either out of his depth or has questionable motives – or both. By Martin McKenzie-Murray, The Saturday Paper, Feb 20, 2016
  17. ^ CSIRO chief defends climate research cuts as staff weigh up industrial action; Larry Marshall says there will be no net loss of staff over two years as international climate scientists condemn the cuts, by Michael Slezak, Guardian, 8 February 2016
  18. ^ "Bent spoon for CSIRO head". Australian Skeptics Inc. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
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