Stefan Harrer

Director, CSIRO Data61

Dr Stefan Harrer is Director of AI for Science at Australia’s National Science Agency CSIRO, leading an innovation, research and commercialisation programme aiming to accelerate scientific discovery with AI.

He is the author of the Lancet article “Attention is not all you need: the complicated case of ethically using large language models in healthcare and medicine” listed on the journal’s 2023 top-10 most-read list.

For over a decade Stefan held senior technical and strategic roles in IBM Research in the US and APAC. He then ran the AI portfolio of one of Australia’s largest deep tech incubators and funders of digital health, the DHCRC Ltd. with $200M under management, as its Chief Innovation Officer.

He is an inventor on 73 granted US and international patents in AI, neuroscience, and biotech, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, an IEEE Senior Member, a Scientific Advisor to Harvard Medical School, and an Advisory Council Member of Harvard Business Review. Stefan’s work was featured in WIRED Magazine, Forbes, and by the World Economic Forum.

He holds a PhD in Computer Science (Technical University Munich, TUM) and an honours degree in Technology Management (CDTM, TUM and UC Berkeley).