Snow Fellow Conference 2024

Doctor Doug Hilton AO | CSIRO Chief Executive

Dr Doug Hilton AO commenced as CSIRO Chief Executive on September 29, 2023.

Dr Hilton is a molecular and cellular biologist and previously Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). At WEHI, his medical research focussed on understanding how blood cells communicate and using this knowledge to improve disease treatments. He and his team held more than 20 patents and translated their research through collaboration with venture capitalists and the biopharmaceutical industry. Through an honorary appointment in the Zoology Department at University of Melbourne, he also studies a family of tiny day-flying moths involved in the pollination of Australian plants.

Beyond research, Dr Hilton has emphasised the importance of strong institutional cultures, and furthered diversity in science including as a member of the Champion of Change Coalition and a board member of Australians Investing in Women.

Georgina Byron AM | CEO The Snow Foundation

Georgina was appointed CEO of The Snow Foundation in 2006 and has significantly grown its reach and impact ever since. As the Foundation increased in capacity, it deepened its commitment to the local Canberra region and stepped outside to back dynamic start-up social entrepreneurs with bold national agendas. Over the last ten years, Georgina has led the further expansion and its commitment to social justice and backed some major social change projects; marriage equality, Raise the Rate campaign, and the elimination of rheumatic heart disease and crusted scabies in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Georgina is passionate about creating social change to improve the lives of Australians, especially women and girls and First Australians. She is a Deputy Chair of Sydney Community Foundation and Chair of Sydney Women’s Community Fund Advisory Council and is a previous director of Good360 and Chair of Philanthropy Australia’s Family Foundation Network. She has also served as a director for the Australian Women Donors Network, and Hands Across Canberra Community Foundation.  Collaboration is central to the Foundation and Georgina has led several co-funding initiatives and brought innovative programs to the ACT.

Before her roles in philanthropy, Georgina had 13 years in the corporate sector holding senior executive positions at David Jones and AMP. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, holds a Bachelor of Business Degree, major in Marketing and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment. Georgina lives in Sydney with her husband and four daughters.

Professor Christopher Goodnow | The Garvan Institute

Professor Goodnow holds The Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair as Head of the Immunogenomics laboratory, a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, and is Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney, and previously Executive Director of The Garvan Institute.

With an American father and Australian mother, Professor Goodnow grew up in Washington DC before moving to Sydney as a teenager. He trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, immunochemistry and immunology at the University of Sydney and in DNA technology at Stanford University. After doctoral studies begun at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne and performed at Sydney University, he joined the faculty of Stanford University Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1990. There he established the concept of multiple immune tolerance checkpoints, a framework now widely used in cancer treatment with “checkpoint inhibitors”, and revealed the function of key genes in these checkpoints including FAS, CD86, PTPN6/SHP1, and later AIRE.

Beyond his research endeavours, Professor Goodnow enjoys spending time with his family and surfing at Sydney’s Manly Beach and on the NSW South Coast. Surfing has been a passion since Professor Goodnow’s school days, and he is well known in surfing circles for leading a 1980 expedition discovering the now-famous breaks in Indonesia’s remote Mentawai Islands.