AFRAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OFFICE-BEARING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
KATHERINE DANIELL
President
Katherine studied Civil Engineering and Arts (French Major) at the University of Adelaide, followed by a co-tutelle PhD at the ANU and AgroParisTech, France. She is now interim Director of the School of Cybernetics, a Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society and a member of the leadership team of the Institute for Water Futures at the Australian National University. Katherine's work focusses on the challenges of implementing collaborative approaches to policy, education and action for sustainable development. She has published over 100 academic works on topics including water governance, climate adaptation, participatory processes, and politics and cultures of innovation. Katherine has previously worked in the ANU Centre for European Studies, HC Coombs Policy Forum, ANU Centre for Policy Innovation and Cemagref in France (now INRAE), including on European projects to strengthen bi-regional dialogue on science and technology between Europe and the Pacific. Katherine is a Chevalier (Knight) in the French Ordre National du Mérite.
FRÉDÉRIC HOLLANDE
Vice-president
Fred heads the Dept of Clinical Pathology and undertakes research activities at the University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research, located within the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC). He works in the field of cancer cell and translational biology. He worked for CNRS from 1996 to 2011. He was the co-funder and the joint-scientific director of a biotech company from 2007 to 2011. He has maintained strong collaborative relationships with French colleagues and heads the Australian node of an INSERM/CNRS Laboratoire International Associé (LIA) in partnership with the Cancer Research Centre of Lyon (CRCL, Professor Alain Puisieux).
SARAH VALLEE
Secretary
Sarah is an international expert in Artificial Intelligence deployed by Expertise France and on secondment at the Australian National University, School of Cybernetics. Her goal is to foster AI collaboration between Australia and France, while creating bridges between the academic and policy worlds.
She has international experience in academic cooperation and public policy settings, and has previously worked with French foreign services, cooperation agencies, international organisations and higher education institutions in Europe, Asia and Africa.
She graduated from Sciences Po with a Master in International Affairs and a Bachelor in European and Asian Studies. She also holds a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Graduate degree in AI Law and Ethics from Artois University.
PRUNE BOKOBZA
Vice Secretary
Prune was appointed, in December 2023, coordinator for the newly launched French-Australian Centre for Energy Transition (FACET), supported by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry and DFAT. A graduate of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris, she moved to Melbourne in April 2022 as an international Expert in Hydrogen & Renewable Energy after working on decarbonization and energy policies at the CEA research and innovation center at the Embassy of France in Japan. In Australia, Prue initially focused on developing French-Australian cooperation in hydrogen and renewable energy, facilitating connections between stakeholders, and fostering collaborations on production and supply chain development projects. She is also involved in the French startup ecosystem, "La French Tech Australia," with a focus on GreenTech.
MARK NETTO
Treasurer
Mark is an Economics graduate from the University of Melbourne and is conducting research as an Energy Policy Fellow. Mark has worked in Banking, Investment, Public Policy and currently works as an Electorate Officer at the Parliament of Australia. He is passionate about strengthening the Australian-French bilateral relationship and creating partnerships in research and industry.
THOMAS BIEDERMANN
Public officer
Thomas is Project Manager at the ANU School of Cybernetics. Hailing from France, he completed his Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering from École Centrale de Marseille, specialising in biochemistry. Prior to joining the ANU in 2016 as a Research Development Coordinator in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, he has worked for the French government in scientific diplomacy in the United States and Australia.
NON-OFFICE BEARING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
DIMITRI PERRIN
Dimitri is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the Queensland University of Technology, where he leads the Biomedical Data Science group. He is also a Chief Investigator in the QUT Centre for Data Science, co-leading the Health and Biological Systems Domain. His research interests are in developing new approaches to analyse, understand and optimise biomedical and social systems. His work therefore spans the areas of modelling and simulation, computational biology and bioin- formatics, and data analysis. Recent projects include gene editing (CRISPR), high-resolution biomedical imaging (CUBIC), and mobile apps for health research.
YVONNE DURANDET
Yvonne is an Associate Professor in the Dept of Mechanical and Product Design Engineering, and Academic Director for the School of Engineering at Swinburne University of Technology. She enjoys working on industry-linked projects for Teaching and Research, mainly on Manufacturing Processes and Technologies, Metals and Alloys. She received Industry Partners' and Commercialisation Awards from CAST CRC for achievements in laser assisted joining, surfacing and machining technologies. Prior to joining Swinburne, she led strategic projects at BHP on coatings and near net shape casting of steel and non-ferrous metals. Yvonne holds a PhD degree from the University of Adelaide and a Bachelor of Engineering from SUPMECA, France.
MAXIME FRANCOIS
Maxime is a Research Scientist at CSIRO Health & Biosecurity. He received his PhD in Medical Sciences from Edith Cowan University in 2013. He is an expert in developing imaging techniques such as protein biomarkers measurement within lymphocytes and buccal cells relating to DNA damage, nutritional deficiencies, ageing and dementia. His current research aims to measure early biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in saliva through proteomics and metabolomics methods for the development of a non-invasive diagnostic test. Maxime is also an associate investigator in the MRFF project “Forecasting Impairment and Neurodegenerative Disease risk following Traumatic Brain Injury (FIND-TBI): A computational neurology-driven method to predict long-term prognosis”.
KATE GOLEBIOWSKA
Kate is a Senior Research Fellow at Charles Darwin University who is interested in how immigration policy, economics, and social structures intersect and can be shaped to improve migrants' economic and social participation. Her work sits at the intersection of migration studies, demography, human geography, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. Kate has a PhD in Public Policy from the Australian National University and an MA in Political Science from the University of Warsaw. In 2023, she held a Fulbright Professional Award at Emory University in Atlanta, USA. She also serves as the Vice-President of the Australian Population Association.
AFRAN MANAGEMENT
KIMBERLEY COULSON
Strategy and Operations Manager
Since September 2024, Kimberley is posted at ANU School of Cybernetics as a Secondee for the Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) Inc. Her role within the association as the Strategy and Operations Manager is to create avenues for collaboration between the French and the Australian research ecosystems.
Her dedication to scientific cooperation comes from her previous role as a Science Officer at the Embassy of France to Australia where she has developed several skills around communication, event organisation, project management. Before settling in Canberra, a city she had fallen deeply in love with by the way, Kim was a researcher in immuno-oncology at RESTORE lab in Toulouse, Southern France, where she has completed a PhD. Her research interests were focused on ovarian and colorectal cancer, peritoneal metastasis, nuclear receptor and tissue-resident vs infiltrated macrophages.
Born and raised in New-Caledonia, Kimberley is particularly interested in increasing research and innovation partnerships between French territories in the Info-Pacific and Australia.