Highlighting pathways to careers in agriculture for development for CSIRO stars

We are so pleased to once again be presenting a NextGen panel on the fantastic international career pathways available in agriculture for development to some of the brightest young minds in Australia, as part of the CSIRO Undergraduate Vacation Studentships.

The panel and Q&A event on 30 January 2025 will feature passionate ag scientists from our extensive NextGen network highlighting their work in agriculture in developing countries and Australia. They will share their experiences exploring countries and cultures while having a rewarding career that delivers global, professional and personal impacts.

The vacation studentships offer ‘offers high achieving and promising undergraduate students the opportunity to collaborate with leading CSIRO researchers in world class facilities. Students work on a real world project and expand their skills and knowledge while exploring ways to solve a real world problem.’

“This event once again kicks off our NextGen activities for the year, the beginning of a suite of activities aimed at encouraging passionate next generation ‘NextGen’ Australians in their study, careers and volunteering for food and nutrition security,” said Cathy Reade, Director of Outreach and manager of the Crawford Fund’s NextGen program.

“We are very pleased to be part of the CSIRO efforts to engage high achieving and promising undergraduate students with the opportunity to collaborate with leading CSIRO researchers over the summer break, and to hear from our NextGen with their international focus,” she said.

The event moderator and speakers below are working in a variety of research areas and we thank them for their eagerness to be involved:

Moderator

Anna Mackintosh, RAID’s Central Committee and senior program officer, DFAT
Anna Mackintosh is on RAID’s Central Committee and is passionate about agriculture for international development. Since she was a Crawford Fund Conference Scholar in 2019, Anna has been a scholar mentor and speaker throughout the Scholar Program. Whilst studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours, she received a Crawford Fund Student Award to travel to Timor-Leste to work on a project targeting improved maternal and child nutrition through nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Anna was previously a Program Officer in the Social Systems program at ACIAR and is now a Senior Program Officer in the Development Policy Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Panellists

Sam Coggins, former Crawford Fund scholar and awardee and New Colombo Plan Fellow 
Sam has a degree in agricultural science, won the Sydney University Convocation Medal and received a Crawford Fund Student Award and CSIRO Undergraduate Vacation Scholarship during his undergrad degree. He’s now doing an interdisciplinary PhD at ANU researching how farmers in Bihar (India) access and share farming know-how using their mobile phones, in the context of nutrient management in rice farming. Previously, Sam was a graduate at the ACIAR and then a research associate at Cornell University

Ollie Gales, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment & Water 
Ollie works in Climate Adaptation and Finance in DCCEEW. He is a Rhodes Scholar and Crawford Fund 2019 Student Awardee. His passion is to contribute to international and cross-cultural policy and governance, to make tangible differences and create frameworks for public good.

Mikayla Hyland-Wood, President, RAID Network & ACIAR Graduate Officer 
Mikayla is president of the RAID Network and a graduate researcher at ACIAR. Her interest in water and food security stems from her undergraduate studies and Honours experience researching PNG coffee systems, which blends all good things in life (water, soil & coffee). She is excited about bringing emerging researchers and practitioners into the RAID family and developing inclusive pathways for impactful research for development.