Prof David Giles is John Ralston Chair of Minerals and Resources Engineering at the Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia and Chief Scientific Officer of MinEx CRC.  He has worked at the interface between academia and the minerals industry for his entire career; as an exploration and project geologist (1993-1996); as a PhD candidate and industry-linked post-doctoral researcher (1996-2005) and as the inaugural State of South Australia Chair of Mineral Exploration (2006-2016). Between 2010 and 2018 Prof. Giles was Program 3 (Targeting) Leader in the Deep Exploration Technologies CRC. 

 As Chief Scientific Officer of MinEx CRC (2019-2028) Prof Giles’ role is to manage, support and champion the research efforts of a multidisciplinary team, distributed across industry, government and academia.  The MinEx CRC R&D portfolio includes drilling engineering (optimizing current drilling practice and developing new drilling technology) combined with sensing technologies (focused on rapid, reliable data collection at the drill site) and designed to inform a systematic, scale-dependent, mineral systems exploration strategy.  In collaboration with Geoscience Australia and the State geological survey organisaitons, MinEx CRC’s National Drilling Initiative provides the opportunity to test our technologies and exploration approach in covered, frontier exploration provinces across the continent.   Key responsibilities or the MinEx CSO are to; i) maintain excellent research at the leading edge of exploration science and technology, ii) ensure collaboration and connectivity within and between the research teams and our partners and, iii) deliver timely outcomes that address our industry-defined challenges.