Petra Kuhnert

Dr Petra Kuhnert is a Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, working at the intersection of statistics, machine learning and AI to support better decision making in complex, high stakes environments. Her work focuses on developing AI driven methods that are fit for purpose, grounded in real world evidence, and designed to be usable by decision makers in government, industry and the community.

She is recognised for leadership in applied and responsible AI for environmental and agricultural decision making, including work supporting Great Barrier Reef policy. Her contributions have been acknowledged through awards including 1st Runner Up, APAC Women in AI Innovator of the Year, and the APAC Women in AI Award for Environment and Biodiversity (2023).

More recently, her work has focused on breaking barriers to adoption of AI driven decision tools by enabling stakeholders and end users to engage with complex physical and simulation based models through machine learning emulators. She also works with geospatial and satellite data to support timely insight and decision making in disrupted systems, including global food supply chains affected by conflict. She is now working with a multidisciplinary team to support farmers and agronomists in developing an AI enabled crop model to help understand the impacts of disruptors such as climate variability on farm level decisions.

Petra is a Panellist for the “Queensland Women Unlimited Summit”, Fireside Discussion on Strategic AI, leadership and Transformation, 18-19 August 2026, Brisbane. (https://womenunlimited.co/location/brisbane/). She is also a keynote speaker at the Australasian Applied Statistics Conference (AASC), 30 November - 4 December, speaking on the topic of "Irresponsible Use of AI is a Crime Scene". She also hosted in 2025 an online CSIRO Conversation "AI for ROI: A guide to smarter AI investment", which attracted 2297 registrants and 600 participants online (https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/Industry-Insights-Hub/conversations).

Her previous roles include Associate Science Director for University Engagement, one of CSIRO’s Research Integrity Advisors, and Group Leader of the Statistical Machine Learning Group in CSIRO’s Data61. She has co authored 100+ journal articles, with 6,000+ citations and a Google Scholar h index of 30+. Her collaborations span leading government departments, universities and industry.