Emeritus Professor Barber is chair of the board of the National Computational Infrastructure, Australia’s most highly-integrated advanced computing and data service. Educated at UNSW and Cornell University, he is internationally recognised for research in statistical mechanics and applied mathematics and has made important contributions to Australian science and innovation policy. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and currently serves on the Academy’s Council as Treasurer. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. In December 2014, he retired as Vice-Chancellor of Flinders University after over 25 years in senior roles in universities and CSIRO. His current interests include entrepreneurship, disruptive innovation and the role that data and HPC play in innovation. Currently he is a member of an international committee set up by the InterAcademy Partnership to improve science policy advice for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.