Biography
Dr Fabienne Reisen is a principal atmospheric research scientist in the Climate, Atmosphere and Ocean Interactions Program of CSIRO Environment BU, specialising in biomass burning emissions. Her research investigates the chemical composition of smoke plumes and how these impact air quality and public health.
Currently, Fabienne is a lead researcher in the development, validation and improvement to the Air Quality Forecasting System (AQFx), a decision-making tool designed to forecast the transport and chemical reaction of emissions from biomass burning (https://research.csiro.au/aqfx/). The national prototype smoke forecasting (AQFx) project was a collaborative research project between CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology, the University of Tasmania, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) (formerly DELWP) and funded by the Department of Home Affairs (https://research.csiro.au/aqfx/). In 2023, the Australian Climate Service (ACS) provided continued funding for the AQFx project to enable CSIRO to improve the underpinning science and near real-time data capabilities to produce robust, accurate, timely and nationally consistent air quality (including smoke and dust) forecasts, and to provide these forecasts to ACS customers, relevant government agencies, and the public.
Fabienne joined CSIRO in 2004 as a Bushfire CRC funded post-doctoral research fellow. Her initial project investigated the risks of firefighters from exposure to toxic hazards on the fire ground. Since then she has contributed to a wide range of co-investment projects including understanding air toxics from fires at the rural urban interface, evaluating the air quality impact from the Hazelwood coal mine fire, studying nanoparticles produced by bushfires and developing emission factors from low intensity prescribed burns in Eucalypt forests and savanna fires. In 2020 Fabienne was awarded the VIC/TAS branch of CASANZ Werner Strauss Clean Air Achievement award, recognising, in the judgement of society, her outstanding contribution to the field of air quality.
Fabienne developed a STEM project targeted to Grade 6-8 students where students build and deploy their own Smoke Observation Gadget (SMOG), a low-cost particle sensor linked to a Raspberry Pi. Students use the SMOG units to monitor fine particles in the air. The collected data set feeds back into a larger project funded by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) aiming to develop a system that enables fire and land management agencies, communities and industries to better prepare, respond to and recover from smoke events due to prescribed burns or bushfires (https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/21/7206).
Fabienne is a co-leader of the Particle and Multiphase Atmospheric program at Cape Grim where she focuses on the analysis of the long-term records of carbonaceous aerosol measurements. She is also interested in exploring the long-term records of “non-baseline” data to understand the effects of pollution aerosols on the marine boundary layer. She was a highlighted speaker at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Annual Conference in 2017, where she presented the trends in black carbon measurements at Cape Grim.
Current Roles
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Team leader
Multi-Phase Atmospheric Chemistry
Academic Qualifications
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2003
PhD Environmental Toxicology
University of California Riverside -
1998
M.A. Environmental Impact Assessment & Management
University of Manchester, UK -
1997
Environmental Engineering
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL)
Professional Experiences
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2020-2021
Lead author to the review of the 2018 statement of the use of low-cost air quality sensors
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) -
2011-2014
Member of the Scientific Reference Group for the Australian Firefighters’ Health Study
Monash University Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, VIC, Australia -
2013-2014
Invited expert reviewer to develop consensus guidelines on public health response during forest fire smoke events
British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Canada -
2017-2020
Team Leader - Reactive Gases
CSIRO -
2013-2016
Team Leader - Aerosols
CSIRO
Achievements and Awards
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2020-2020
CASANZ VIC/TAS branch Werner Strauss Clean Air Achievement Award
Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand -
2014-2014
Certificate of Recognition for significant contribution to the understanding of the air quality impacts of a major emergency on the local community and environment- Hazelwood Coal Mine Fire 2014
Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand -
2013-2013
Bushfire CRC award in recognition of outstanding contribution to the Bushfire CRC through high quality research
Bushfire CRC