Dr Helen McFarlane is the Group Leader of Multidimensional Geoscience at CSIRO Mineral Resources, where her team undertakes multidisciplinary research to strengthen mineral discovery and support Australia’s strategic and critical minerals agenda. Her work integrates geology, geophysics, data analytics and mineral systems science to develop tools and datasets that reduce exploration risk and enhance resource knowledge.

Helen leads the Understanding Mineral Systems Inside Out subproject within the $200M MinEx CRC, the world’s largest mineral exploration collaboration. She brings extensive expertise in applied structural geology across greenfield and brownfield copper, gold, nickel and base metal exploration, with experience spanning Australia, West Africa and South America.

She is also Chair of Geoconferences and a 2025–2026 Superstar of STEM. Helen holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Honours) and a PhD in Geology from Monash University and the University of Toulouse.