Vivien (viv) Rolland MSc, PhD

Dr. Vivien (Viv) Rolland, MSc, Ph.D. is a Team Leader of Translational Biology at the CSIRO. Viv received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Vienna where he worked with Dr. Juergen Knoblich (IMBA, Austria) on the balance between proliferation and cell differentiation in Drosophila neural stem cell lineages. Viv then moved to The Australian National University to do a short postdoc with Prof. Marilyn Ball where he studied the mechanisms of in vitro and in vivo embolism resorption in angiosperms.

For example, Viv investigates how recent advances in microimaging, image analysis, and Artificial Intelligence can be used to investigate crop performance to deliver impact through better varieties. Viv co-leads the Object Detection activity of the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence FSP to use AI to develop practical solutions across domains and scales - from single-cell organisms to radiogalaxies.

Previously, he was involved in Synthetic Biology efforts to engineer crops to do new things: natural cotton fibers with new stretch properties to partially replace fossil-fuel-based synthetics, or plant leaves with increased oil content to support a growing global demand. Up until late 2022, Viv was leading the Black Mountain microImaging Centre (BMIC), which provides expertise, training, and state-of-the-art microimaging capabilities to 100+ users, to enable impactful scientific discoveries for Agriculture.