Professor Stuart Phinn
Professor Stuart Phinn
2 July 2009

A University of Queensland scientist has been recognised as one of Australia’s most influential men under 45 by a leading men’s magazine.

Professor Stuart Phinn was selected in the second annual Men’s Style magazine Men of Influence Under 45 list.

The list recognizes those who have “affected the cultural, physical and emotional landscape, on a grand scale and in their own patch”.

“I’m surprised and very pleased to be selected,” Professor Phinn said.

“To be included in a list of people with major impacts on Australia’s political, cultural, business and sport endeavours, is an honour. It’s also very positive to see environmental science recognised.”

Professor Phinn’s work in the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management’s Centre for Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Science uses regularly collected images from satellites to map environmental features over Queensland and Australia.

This information forms the basis for understanding changes in the Australia’ atmosphere, forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal and coral reefs, trying to answer questions like: is this element of change natural or due to humanity’s exhaust?

“Part of our work involves training people from all over the world who then go on to international space agencies, Federal and State government agencies and other institutions to develop and apply these techniques elsewhere,” Professor Phinn said.

“Satellite is such an important tool to obtaining images and people have been storing images of the Earth collected from satellites since the early 1970’s.”

“After Google Earth, people saw how detailed the technology could be and began to take the field extremely seriously. Our expertise provides bona fides, in a court case say, so the images genuinely represent what’s on the ground.”

Professor Phinn’s in distinguished company, Federal Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey, Federal Minister for Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Tony Burke and Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser also feature in the list.

As does actor Hugh Jackman, Socceroos star Tim Cahill and Australian Test Cricket Vice Captain Michael Clark.

Media: Professor Stuart Phinn (07 33656526 or s.phinn@uq.edu.au) or Travis Taylor (07 333658598 or t.taylor1@uq.edu.au)