Alan Finkel
- Doctor
- Special Adviser to the Australian Government
Alan Finkel commenced as Australia’s Chief Scientist on 25 January 2016. He has an extensive background as an entrepreneur, engineer, neuroscientist and educator. Prior to becoming Chief Scientist, he was the Chancellor of Monash University and President of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the Monash University. In 1983 he founded Axon Instruments, a company that made precision scientific instruments used in pharmaceutical companies and universities in the discovery of new medicines.
After Axon was sold in 2004, Mr Finkel became a director of the acquiring company, NASDAQlisted Molecular Devices. In 2006, he focused his career in Australia.
He led the amalgamation that formed the Florey Neuroscience Institutes; he became Chair of the Australian Centre of Excellence for All‐Sky Astrophysics and was a director of the ASXlisted diagnostics company Cogstate Limited. He was Executive Chair of the educational software company Stile Education, Chair of Manhattan Investment Group, Chief Technology Officer of Better Place Australia and Chair of Speedpanel Australia. A winner of the Clunies Ross Award for facilitating international neuroscience research, Mr Finkel is committed to science education. He co‐founded Cosmos Magazine, which in addition to magazine publishing operates a secondary schools science education program. Mr Finkel also established the Australian Course in Advanced Neuroscience to train early career neuroscientists and is patron of the Australian Science Media Centre.
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