Ian Lowe

Leading Environmental Scientist

One of Australia’s most respected environmental scientists, Ian Lowe is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). He is also emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University, an adjunct professor at Sunshine University and QUT, an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide and a consultant to CSIRO Division of Sustainable Ecosystems.

Ian Lowe earned a D.Phil in physics from the University of York and became Director of Griffith University’s Science Policy Research Centre (1980-1992) and subsequently Head of the School of Science. His principal research interests are in the broad area of policy decisions influencing use of science and technology, especially in the fields of energy and environment.

From 1983 to 1989, Ian Lowe was a member of the National Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Council, chairing its standing committee on social, economic and environmental issues. He was Director of the Commission for the Future in 1988, and chaired the advisory council that produced the first independent national report on the state of the environment in 1996. He is a member of the Environmental Health Council and the Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council. He chairs Brisbane’s Urban Environment Advisory Committee.

Ian Lowe has long been active in promoting innovation at all levels of education and was a member of the advisory group that produced Education 2010, the Queensland strategy plan. He chairs the State government task force implementing the reform of science education and has conducted consultancies for government as well as individual companies and organisations in the private sector.

He has been a referee for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, attended the Geneva and Kyoto conferences of the parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and was a member of the Australian delegation to the 1999 UNESCO World Conference on Science. He was on the steering group for the UNEP project Global Environmental Outlook, an invited participant in the 2000 workshop on Sustainability Science and a referee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program’s 2004 book on planetary science.

Ian Lowe was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to science and technology, In 2002 he was awarded a Centenary Medal and won the Eureka Prize for promotion of science. His contributions have also been recognised by the Prime Minister’s Environment Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement and the Queensland Premier’s Millennium Award for Excellence in Science.

He makes frequent contributions to radio and television in such areas as news, current affairs and science and has written for numerous periodicals as well as The Weekend Australian and New Scientist. He is the author or the co-author of 10 Open University books, 6 other books, 40 book chapters and over 500 other publications or conference papers.

Ian Lowe gave the ABC’s Boyer Lectures in 1991. He has been a member of the advisory group for Brisbane’s Ideas at the Powerhouse since its inception four years ago, is a member of the board of Major Brisbane Festivals Ltd and is President of Queensland Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

In his spare time, Ian plays cricket, sings in choral groups, walks in the Australian bush and overseas mountains, reads voraciously, watches films and is trying to improve his golf game.