September 25, 2015
AMT: Tell us about CSIRO Manufacturing and the sorts of activities it’s engaged in. Keith McLean: We’re a business of about 430 staff with a range of skills and backgrounds. We have a really diverse capability that stretches from molecular engineering through to organic chemistry, to materials-processing to additive manufacturing to modelling. It’s a diverse skill-set that we bring together as a mission-directed organisation, to tackle problems for our customers, partners and collaborators. Our focus here is on manufacturing, but of course manufacturing is a huge and diverse industry. We have a major program in biomedical manufacturing, from small molecule drug development, to materials for implantable devices and for growing stem cells. We have a program on Industrial Innovation, doing prototyping for a range of industries including for energy, rail and defence, a key potential growth area for the country. The chemicals and fibre manufacturing group are developing chemical and fibre processing capabilities for industrial, environmental, agricultural and energy applications. In the carbon-fibre space we are working closely with Deakin University and industry partners, using…
