Flora KerblatInternational Cooperation & Collaboration for the Centre for Earth Observation, CSIRO
Based in Adelaide, Flora is a French-born Geographer holding a Master’s degree in Geopolitics from the Sorbonne University. She became Australian after nearly 10 years in Canberra, Sydney, and Adelaide where she settled 5 years ago with her young family.
Drawing on her 12-year experience in international development & project management including several years with CSIRO on Earth Observation programs, Flora's role focuses on strengthening partnerships across the globe, bringing together experts from Australia and other countries to advance EO research and data uptake.
In addition to organising workshops, she manages bilateral partnerships and agreements with stakeholders (mostly Space agencies). She coordinates CSIRO activities in the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), where she looks after the Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) team. She ensures the CSIRO Centre for Earth observation (CCEO) collaborates with other Government Agencies when it comes to our international engagement. She works closely with Geoscience Australia (GA): we co-led the CEOS Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) in 2020-21, helped organise the GEO Ministerial event (Canberra, Nov. 2019) with the Australian Space Agency (ASA), and currently co-chair the GEO Pacific Islands Advisory Group where her background naturally facilitates building relationships with French-speaking territories in the region.
She also contributes to research activities: co-author and editor for a special Issue of Remote Sensing of Environment on UNSDGs (2020), the CEOS handbook on UNSDGs (2018), and the White Paper on Earth Observation & Official Statistics for the UN Global Working Group on Satellite Imagery and Geo-Spatial Information (2016).
She currently looks after CSIRO’s international engagement for key strategic EO projects such as AquaWatch Australia (science group, pilot sites network), and supports the Data Cube technology development in Southeast Asia and Pacific.
