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HOBART TAS 7001 AUSTRALIA
Biography
Terry O’Kane is senior principal research scientist at CSIRO Environment where he has held a range of project, team and group leader roles. Terry has a background in pure and applied mathematics (BSc(Hons) LaTrobe, PhD Monash), and theoretical physics (MSc U. Melb). For "outstanding original contributions to difficult and important problems in applied mathematics" Terry was awarded the 2013 JH Michell Medal, of the Australian Mathematical Society and in 2023 was made a fellow of the Society. Terry is a former ARC Future Fellow and has held positions as visiting scientist at Princeton University and adjunct professor of mathematics at UTAS. In 2022 he was awarded DSc from the University of Melbourne for his contributions to physical oceanography, atmospheric dynamics, and stochastic modelling. With his collaborators, Terry’s recent work has the following major foci namely; advancing development and deployment of stable, physically consistent, AI climate emulators; combining dynamical systems approaches with Bayesian and non-stationary optimization methods to characterise metastability and causality in high dimensional multiscale flows; application of entropic learning to climate prediction.
Prior to joining CSIRO, Terry was ensemble prediction scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology where he implemented the Australian Global and Regional Ensemble Prediction System adapted from the UK Met Office MOGREPS system.
Terry has over 150 publications (web of science B-1655-2009) spanning atmospheric dynamics, physical oceanography, dynamical systems, Bayesian inference, optimization, machine learning, and the statistical mechanics and dynamics of geophysical flows.
Professional Areas
Fields of Research
Current
- Time series and spatial modelling (490511)
- Dynamical systems in applications (490105)
- Stochastic analysis and modelling (490510)
- Atmospheric dynamics (370105)
- Computational modelling and simulation in earth sciences (370401)
- Physical oceanography (370803)
- Meteorology (370108)
- Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering not elsewhere classified (401299)
Former
Current Roles
-
Senior Principal Research Scientist
Ocean Physics
Academic Qualifications
-
2022
Doctor of science
The University of Melbourne -
2003
PhD (Applied Mathematics)
Monash University -
1999
MSc(by research) 1st class H1A (Theoretical Physics)
The University of Melbourne -
1997
BSc(Hons) 1st class H1A (Pure & Applied Mathematics)
LaTrobe University
Professional Experiences
-
2022-present
Senior Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO Environment -
2023-2026
Group Leader
Modelling the Earth System -
2015-2022
Principal Research Scientist
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere -
2014-2017
Adjunct Professor (mathematics)
University of Tasmania -
2013-2017
Australian Research Council Future Fellow (Full Professor)
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere -
2010-2013
Senior Research Scientist
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere -
2009-2010
Research Scientist
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere -
2007-2009
Ensemble Prediction Scientist
Bureau of Meteorology -
2006-2007
Research Fellow
ACE CRC / UTAS -
2003-2006
Emerging Science Postdoctoral Fellow
CSIRO Atmospheric Science -
1999-2003
Postgraduate scholarship
CRC Southern Hemisphere Meteorology / Monash University (mathematics) -
1997-1998
Australian Postgraduate Award
(Physics) University of Melbourne
Achievements and Awards
-
2023-present
Fellow Australian Mathematical Society
Australian Mathematical Society (FAustMS) -
2022-present
Doctor of Science
The University of Melbourne -
2021-2027
Associate editor: Journal of advances in modelling earth systems (JAMES)
American Geophysical Union -
2014-2018
Adjunct Professor - mathematics
University of Tasmania -
2013-2017
ARC Future Fellow
Australian Research Council -
2014-2022
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow
UTAS IMAS -
2013-2013
Visiting Scientist
Princeton University -
2013-2013
JH Michell Medal
Australian Mathematics Society
Other highlights
-
19 August 2026-21 August 2026
Plenary Speaker: ACCESS NRI Workshop "Connecting Machine Learning to Earth System Science"
-
8 July 2025-11 July 2025
Invited speaker: AI4X 2025 National University of Singapore
-
19 November 2024-22 November 2024
Public Lecture: "The 22nd Biennial Computational Techniques and Applications Conference" Monash University
-
13 July 2022-15 July 2022
Plenary speaker: SIAM Mathematics for planet earth (MPE22), Pittsburgh, USA
-
2nd October 2019-4th October 2019
Panelist: Intelligence Amplified: D61+ LIVE 2019: Big Ideas Stage: AI for environmental and social good:
-
3rd December 2019 -6th December 2019
Keynote speaker: 63nd Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society, Monash University
-
14th August 2017-18th August 2017
Invited speaker: Turbulent Mixing and Beyond, Sixth International Conference Tenth Anniversary Program, 14-18 August, 2017 the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste, Italy
-
20 November 2016-26 November 2016
Invited lecturer: Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach seminar series, Oberwolfach, Germany, November 20-26, 2016 “Different mathematical perspectives on description of unresolved scales in multiscale systems” with (R. Klein, C. Hartmann & I. Horenko)
-
2nd Feb 2014-6th Feb 2014
Plenary Speaker: Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ANZIAM) Conference 2014, 2nd-6th February, Rotorua, New Zealand
Grants
-
2016-2018
NESP ESCC Project 2.3 Towards an ACCESS decadal prediction system
-
2013-2016
ARC Future Fellow: The stability and predictability of the Southern-Hemisphere coupled ocean-atmosphere climate system
-
2015-2016
CSIRO Complex Systems Science Travel Grant
-
2018-2020
eResearch collaboration project (x2): Inhomogeneous turbulence closures on GPUs for application to problems in climate modelling
-
2003-present
Multiple Emerging Science, ACE CRC, OCE, ResearchPlus, Antarctic Gateway, MLAI FSP postdoctoral and research fellow grants
Community and Corporate Citizenship
-
2021-2026
Associate editor: AGU Journal Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
-
2018-2022
Co-chair World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Grand Challenge Near Term Climate Prediction
-
2019-present
WCRP Decadal Prediction Committee
-
2019-present
assessment panels for the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS)
-
2020-present
assessment panels for the Australian Leadership Computing Grants (ALCG) scheme
-
2018-present
O&A High Performance Computing committee
-
2020-present
CSIRO Research Integrity Adviser Oceans & atmosphere
-
2019-present
CSIRO Career Mentor
Related links
ORCID 0000-0002-2137-5915
We have publications by Dr Terry O'Kane
Published data & software
We have published items by Dr Terry O'Kane