Frank Sperling: Senior Principal Research Scientist

Frank Sperling is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Agriculture and Food and is based in Brisbane, Australia. He also holds an affiliation with the University of Queensland as an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). He is a Research Scientist with the Food System Horizons initiative and has expertise in food systems transformation research. His recent work includes a national multi-stakeholder food systems roadmap, which was launched in June 2023 to inform engagement in building more nutritious, just, sustainable and resilient food systems.

Frank brings over 20 years of international experience of working on sustainable development issues. He has worked for several international organisations. As Senior Project Manager at the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) he was engaged in a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on the transformation of food systems and the broader interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most recently he has been co-leading the resilient food systems theme of the IIASA-ISC Consultative Science Platform, which explored the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for sustainable development. In his prior role as Chief Climate Change Specialist of the African Development Bank he led and task-managed thematic work on green growth, focusing on concept development and operational guidance. Further engagements include work as Senior Advisor at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on REDD+ and as Climate Change Expert and Environmental Specialist at World Bank, where he focused on adaptation to climate change and linkages with disaster risk reduction and sustainable land management, engaged in global initiatives and project and programmatic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively.

He has written about a variety topics, including food system transformations, resilience, climate change adaptation, natural capital, sustainable land management, sustainable development and the SDGs, leading and contributing to flagship reports, working papers, policy and technical documents, book chapters and publications, such as Nature Sustainability, One Earth, Global Change Biology, Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, Sustainability Science, Oceanography and Limnology and Climatic Change. 

Throughout his career Fank has been interested in the science policy interface and engaged in reviews on the evolving knowledge on global change, including lead and contributing author roles with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Frank was a member of delegations of government, multilateral and non-governmental organizations to international environment and development policy processes, including the UNFCCC, UNCCD and the Rio+20 process.

Frank was educated in Germany, the UK and US. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and University of Washington focused on environmental and biological sciences and was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University to explore global environmental change from multi-disciplinary angles. Following his prior work experiences in the Americas and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, he is now focused on Australia and also takes a strong interest in relevant thematic linkages with the wider Asia Pacific region. 

Aside from his professional passion for sustainable development, Frank enjoys time with his family, and exploring the fascinating environment of his new home Australia. Hobbies include watersports, volleyball, hiking, alpine and backcountry skiing. He also likes landscape photography, painting and music.