Graham Gourlay
CFA is incredibly fortunate to have the very capable skills of Graham Gourlay at its disposal and… for free! Graham started to volunteer with us in August of 2008 and has been helping us in some capacity ever since! Graham has an incredibly distinguished career. Unfortunately for this newsletter we will have to severely curtail his experiences, but his brief bio is as follows.
After many years working in the food sciences area, Graham joined CSIRO in 1993 where he has been responsible for assisting CSIRO in the commercialisation of its research in the food, agribusiness and other biological science-based sectors. More recently, he has worked with scientists to identify and protect intellectual property and to develop and implement plans to transfer that IP to the food industry through licensing arrangements.
Graham generously volunteers with CFA every Friday so if you stop in, you might be lucky and have a chance to meet this bright and optimistic person!
Questions
1) Graham – you bring many skills and experiences, and a wealth of knowledge to CFA. How do you hope to use them here?
When I started at CFA, my first project was to draft a short contract that the ACFRT could use to ensure that the benefits of the research that it funds flow back quickly to the Australian CF community. Another project, involving working closely with the team at CFA, is helping to commercialise products for the treatment of CF and ensuring their early availability in Australia. In all of these activities, the idea is to use my skills and knowledge in any way possible to assist the CF community.
2) What are you hoping to accomplish during your time here?
I am used to working with an organisation committed to research, but of course what both CFA and CSIRO are always short of is funds to support that research. What we at CFA hope to accomplish is to set up funding arrangements that will boost support for CF research for a number of years. We are working on ways to obtain this funding commitment from various sources such as government grants, corporate sponsorship and public donations.
3) Why CF?
When I was planning to take some long service leave two years ago I was keen to use my skills in a volunteer role. I talked with several medical groups but nothing ‘gelled’ (to use a good food technology term) until through a friend I heard about CF and met Terry. My skills and CFA’s needs ‘blended instantly’ together. Just two months after I started here, the daughter of another friend had a CF baby who died a few weeks after birth so that has reinforced my desire to assist the CF community.
4) Being a food scientist, do you get to sample all of the up and coming gourmet items in Australia?
No unfortunately, although with some of the strange foods around these days it might be best not to have to taste them!
