Mark Stickells AM is the CEO of one of Australia’s finest examples of scientific and research infrastructure, the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. Pawsey is home to the most powerful (and greenest) research supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere – Setonix. Researchers from more than 30 universities run advanced calculations and simulations and computational processes on Setonix that you just can’t do on a desktop or with datasets and a scale that is impossible to do on local resources.
We chat with Mark about the vital importance of research infrastructure like Pawsey in accelerating scientific research for the benefit of the nation – and the funding needed to support it; the environmental and societal issues top of mind at the moment around supercomputers and data centres; how his background in the Humanities (he’s an Arts graduate of The University of Western Australia) has grounded him during his 30 year career across a number of sectors; why the Humanities are more important than ever in this increasingly AI-enabled world; and much more. Recorded November 2025.