Brian Keating

Brian Keating has 40 years’ experience in the conduct and leadership of agricultural and natural resource management R&D, initially as a post-graduate researcher with the University of Queensland (1977-1980) and then via a diverse range of roles in Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO (1981- 2016). Leadership roles in CSIRO have included Deputy Chief and then Chief of the Division of Sustainable Ecosystems (2004-2008), Director of Sustainable Agriculture National Research Flagship (2008-2013) and the member of the CSIRO Executive responsible for Agriculture, Food and Health (2014-2015). From 2016 to 2020, Brian continued his association with CSIRO via an Honorary Fellowship in Agriculture and Food.

Leadership and governance roles beyond CSIRO in the 1990’s and 2000’s have included Board memberships of three Cooperative Research Centres (CRC), namely CRC for Sustainable Sugar Production, CRC for Rainforest Ecology and Management and CRC for Tropical Savannas.

Brian’s core disciplinary background is in plant physiology, crop agronomy and soil science. These disciplines have formed the foundation for a career built around systems approaches to profitable and sustainable agricultural practice, in the face of climate variability and the social and economic factors shaping farming practice. Brian played a lead role in the development of the APSIM farming systems modelling suite of tools. This simulation model capability is increasingly supporting management decisions on Australian grain farms via the Yield Prophet tools. His research has primarily focused on sustainable broad-acre farming systems R&D in the Australian grains and sugar industries and smallholder agricultural systems in sub Saharan Africa. He is a long standing member of the Editorial Board of the international journal, Agricultural Systems. He has authored over 200 scientific papers covering diverse topics including soil and water management, plant nutrition, soil carbon and nitrogen cycling, crop physiology, farming systems analysis and design, bioenergy, simulation modelling, climatic risk management and food security.

As leader of the Sustainable Agriculture National Research Flagship, Brian worked across all CSIRO business units to create an integrated program of research and engagement in all aspects of agricultural sustainability, including a major focus on greenhouse gas mitigation in the Australian land sector (soils, crops, livestock and forests). This included significant advisory roles in the Australian government policy domain over the 2010-2015 period via participation in the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee for the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) and the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) of the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF).

Brian retired from CSIRO in February 2016 and he continued (2016-2020) as Fellow to CSIRO Agriculture and Food (an honorary role). Brian is currently a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Irish agricultural research and extension agency, TEAGASC and the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland. He recently stood down as Chair of the Science Advisory Panel for AgResearch (a Crown Research Institute owned by the New Zealand Government and leader in pastoral systems research for NZ) and Chair of the Science Advisory Panels for the CGIAR Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

He was recognised as a Fellow of the International Union of Food Science and Technology in 2014.

Brian is a graduate (2002) of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) program for Company Board members.

In February 2020, Brian was recognised as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland.