Professor Peta Ashworth OAM is the Director of the Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership, and Chair in Sustainable Energy Futures at The University of Queensland (UQ). Professor Ashworth brings over thirty years’ experience working in a range of senior management, consulting and research roles. In her previous role as Group Leader at CSIRO’s Division of Earth Science and Resource Engineering, Peta conceptualised and led the Science into Society Group, which specialised in interdisciplinary research at the interface between science, technology and society.
Professor Ashworth is a globally-recognised expert in the fields of energy, communication, stakeholder engagement, and technology assessment. For almost two decades, Peta has been researching public attitudes toward climate and energy technologies, including wind, carbon capture and storage (CCS), solar photovoltaics, storage, nuclear geothermal and more recently hydrogen. She is the Chief Investigator on the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre Social License to Operate work package and an adviser on a number of Australian and international hydrogen research projects, including CSIRO’s Hydrogen Industry Mission.
Peta’s contributions to the field of sustainable energy include leading the social science research program of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, as well as working alongside Australia’s Chief Scientist in the development of Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy as a Member of the Strategy Stakeholder Advisory Panel, and the COAG Hydrogen Working Group. In March 2021, Professor Ashworth was appointed by Queensland’s Palaszczuk Government as Chair of the Hydrogen Taskforce.
In recognition of her service to science, in the field of sustainable energy, Peta was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2019.
