Australia
August 12, 2104
Dr Kim Ritman
Department of Agriculture Chief Scientist and Australian Chief Plant Protection Officer
Kim Ritman was appointed on 1 July 2014 as Australia’s Chief Plant Protection Officer. This role is the primary representative and advisor to the Australian Government on all matters relating to the management, maintenance and improvement of Australia’s plant health status, and international representative through the International Plant Protection Convention.
As the department’s Chief Scientist, Kim has a scientific research leadership role across the Department of Agriculture. This includes the implementation of science strategy, being a champion for the Science and Innovation Awards, high level science representation for the department across government and maintaining key science stakeholder relationships.
The two roles are well integrated and mutually enhance each other.
Kim has led and managed science based policy advice in areas including fisheries, forestry, land use, biosecurity, feral animals and weeds, climate, water availability, salinity, agricultural biotechnology, spatial information and social sciences.
After obtaining a PhD in plant physiology, Kim specialised in satellite imagery and computer based mapping. He has applied these technologies in the areas of forestry, crop forecasting, vegetation mapping and agriculture. He has commercial experience as a project manager in the IT sector, developing large defence geospatial projects and improving quality management systems. He has also worked in Victorian and NSW state governments as well as a short stint lecturing in computer science at Otago University in New Zealand.
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