Good Starts

Good Starts explores how science is translated into new technology and products. On this episode host David Burt talks to Vicky Staikopoulos, the founder of Woven Optics, a company helping farmers increase their revenue from wool. Vicky’s journey is a unique one; the conversation follows the diversity and flexibility of Vicky’s experiences – a medical researcher by trade, she's taken a piece of med-tech and pivoted it towards agriculture. 

Host: David Burt 

Producer: Sarah Frazer 

Dr James Palmer and Simon Palumbo are co-founders of Silentium Defence Pty Ltd, a fast-growing, South Australian SME providing unique passive radar technology to Defence and civilian customers. James and Simon founded the company in 2017 when they spun out of Defence Science and Technology Group having completed ON Accelerate3. Since then they have gone from strength to strength - opening their own R&D facility, winning contracts and growing the business from two to 16 full-time, part-time and contract staff. They have an extremely strong founding team and are an excellent example of how to successfully bootstrap a start-up. 

On this episode of Good Starts David Burt talks to David Romano, an internationally recognised expert on leadership. Over the last three years, David has been helping technical founders bring together high performing teams to start and grow new ventures. This talk explores the transformation that’s needed to progress from technical expert to a successful founder, and how harnessing the power of good leadership is crucial to the success of any start-up. 

Hosted by David Burt, produced by Sarah Frazer.

Dr Melony Sellars is the co-founder and CEO of Genics, a start-up securing global food production through smart pathogen detection and breeding selection. Dr Sellars is a global shrimp expert by training, leading a team working on developing and applying novel biotech solutions to revolutionise today’s farming practices to deliver global food security for the future.

From starting off her career as a CSIRO scientist, Dr Sellars is now at the helm of a company conducting trials around the world. Through the journey, Dr Sellars has never lost her drive to learn new things every day and wants to inspire and encourage others to join her on the journey of science commercialisation. 

Host: David Burt 

Producer and Editor: Sarah Frazer 

David talks with RapidAIM co-founder and co-inventor Dr Nancy Schellhorn, on her journey from CSIRO scientist to CEO with $1.25million of funding.

They discuss the impact on Australian farmers that RapidAIM has had in a very short time, minimising labour and food waste, with solutions that solve an estimated $300million problem area for the nation’s horticulture sector and economy.

Nancy reflects on the pathway from her first steps into customer discovery and commercialisation, to onboarding talent as an unknown new business in Australia, and the support and mentoring she valued along the way to make it happen.

They also chat about how Australian scientists are the best-placed people to help make a genuine difference in the world, with the step-change, skills, support and network.

Dr Schellhorn is a scientist with over 30 years in entomology. A former CSIRO scientist, Nancy has contributed to many national and international committees and advisory panels and served 10 years on the Federal Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) Technical Advisory Committee, the GRDC National Grains Pest Advisory (GPAC) Committee, the Cotton Industry Bt Technical Advisory Committee, and the OECD Integrated Pest Management Advisory Committee. 

Host: David Burt 

Producer and Editor: Sarah Frazer 

On this episode of Good Starts, David talks to Stephen Trowell, Founder and Managing Director of PPB Technology, about how his passion for seeing science through to impact took him from field to founder.

The research behind the Parts Per Billion technology was created by a multidisciplinary team of chemists, biochemists, molecular biologists, physicists, engineers and mathematicians with Stephen at the helm. Stephen and the team created technology using smarter detectors to identify specific chemicals.  Their efforts then focussed on detecting security threats, monitoring food quality and safety and developing non-invasive breath-based diagnostics for diseases such as malaria and lung cancer. This research led to the formation of his spinout, with Stephen leaving CSIRO after 20 years to chase his Founder dream.

Starting his career at the University of Cambridge to obtain an Honours Degree in biochemistry, Stephen then took a Masters in neurobiology at the University of Manchester and was awarded his Ph.D. in sensory neurobiology by the Australian National University in 1987. He joined CSIRO in 1989 on an ARC National Research Fellowship.

Stephen has well over 100 publications and is an inventor on 14 patent families. He continues to serve on the Editorial Board of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics and in 2013 received a Newton-Turner Award. Stephen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW in 2018. 

Host: David Burt 

Producer and Editor: Sarah Frazer