Biography
Kristen's broad research interests are in the security of AI and AI for cybersecurity, with a special interest in generative AI, AI misuse detection and prevention, and human-AI collaboration. She was a finalist for the Women In AI Australia/NZ awards in Cyber Security in 2022 and also for the Australian AI Awards 2024 in the AI Female Leader of the Year (Enterprise) category. She was the technical lead for the Cyber Security CRC project “Deception as a Service”, and then went on to lead Data61's engagement in the Cyber Security CRC project “Augmenting Cyber Defence Capability”. Since joining CSIRO in 2020 she has filed an international patent application, won AIIA iAwards for both Cyber Security CRC project involvements she led, and published in top AI and security conferences including ICLR, IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, ESORICS, ACSAC, CIKM, AsiaCCS, and IEEE Euro S&P.
Kristen completed her PhD in mathematics in 2012 at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and the Free University Berlin, in Germany. She then held postdoctoral positions at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at UC Berkeley, and at Stanford University. She then worked in industry for 6 years, firstly at Gro Intelligence, an agriculture-tech startup company in New York. She then worked at Telstra, where she led a team to develop and deploy a collaborative Human-AI customer support system that was used by over 1,000 Telstra customer support staff.
Academic Qualifications
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2012
PhD Mathematics
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics & Freie Universität Berlin. -
2007
BSc (Hons): Mathematics and Physics
Monash University
Achievements and Awards
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2025-2025
iAward Winner of Victorian "Government and Public Service" category
AIIA -
2025-2025
Outstanding PC Award for AsiaCCS 2025
AsiaCCS 2025 -
2023-2026
Julius Career Award CSIRO
CSIRO -
2024-2024
Finalist for Australian AI Awards 2024 - AI Female Leader of the Year (Enterprise)
Momentum Media -
2023-2023
Merit Award for "Technology Platform" category at ACT iAwards
AIIA -
2022-2022
Finalist for Women In AI (WAI) Australia/NZ award in Cyber Security
Women in AI -
2021-2021
Women in Science Award
CSIRO (SCS, Data61)
Current Roles
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Team Lead
Human-Centered AI and Cybersecurity
Community and Corporate Citizenship
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2025-2026
TPC/Reviewer: ICLR 2025, 2026
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2025-2026
TPC/Reviewer: AsiaCCS 2025, 2026
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2026-2026
TPC/Reviewer: EuroS&P 2026