ACM CRC Partner Meeting 2026

Lisa Blair, a trailblazing sailor and climate activist, made history with her remarkable achievements. She became the first woman to sail solo around Antarctica, overcoming a dramatic dismasting incident. Her yacht, Climate Action Now, embodied her commitment to a sustainable future.

Lisa led the first all-female team in the iconic Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and set two world records by circumnavigating Australia solo and unassisted in just 58 days. In the Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race, she achieved another milestone as part of the first double-handed female team to finish.

On 25 May 2022, Lisa shattered records again, becoming the fastest person to sail solo,non-stop, and unassisted around Antarctica, surpassing the previous record by 10 days. She collaborated with renowned scientific organizations, elevating her expedition to a UnitedNations Decade of Ocean Science initiative.

Lisa set her 6th and 7th records in 2024, becoming the fastest person and first woman to sail from Sydney Australia to Auckland in New Zealand. She established a new record time of 8 days, 3 hours and 19 minutes taking more than 4 days of the previous record time. Lisa then set her latest record by becoming the first person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around New Zealand from Auckland to Auckland, Lisa crossed the start line at 0757 (NZST) Tuesday 7 May and finished at 7.30 am (NZST) on Friday 24 May, sailing over 2,672 nm and taking just under 17 days to complete the trip. 

Lisa was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for her services to sailing in January 2025. She has now sailed over 130,000 nm and holds an RYA Yacht Master offshore.

Lisa is an Australian adventurer, author of ‘Facing Fear’, and speaker on resilience and mental agility. As a passionate Climate Activist, she crafts projects to advance sustainability, inspiring future generations to embrace Climate Action Now. Lisa is now turning her attention to becoming the first person to sail solo around the Arctic Circle.

Dr Tong Xie is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) at UNSW Sydney, where he leads the university’s AI4Science initiative. 

His research sits at the intersection of machine learning, materials science, chemistry and natural language processing, with a particular focus on large-scale scientific foundation models and AI-driven scientific discovery.

Tong has led several breakthrough projects at UNSW, including DARWIN - the world’s first large language model for the physical sciences - and MiST, the first reasoning-capable model purpose-built for the chemical sciences.

Recognised as one of NCI Australia’s Top 10 HPC–AI Talents, Tong also contributes actively to the global AI4Science community. 

He serves as a peer reviewer for more than 15 leading journals and for several national and private research funding bodies across Australia, Europe and the United States.

Associate Professor Scott Barnett helps manufacturers apply AI to improve quality, productivity and operational decision-making. 

He leads the AI for Manufacturing team at Deakin University’s Applied Artificial Intelligence Initiative, where his team has worked with Harley-Davidson to identify seven high-value AI opportunities and with Carbon Revolution to develop a computer vision application. 

Over the past five years, Scott has led and delivered 24 industry research and development projects. 

He also founded and co-organises Melbourne’s AI Engineering Network, a community of more than 1,400 practitioners focused on building AI systems that are safe, reliable and ready for real-world use.