Iadine Chades

Prof Iadine Chades serves as Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, directing the Socio-Technical Innovations team (9 researchers) focused on integrating artificial intelligence with conservation science, ecology, epidemiology, and social sciences. Her work develops AI-driven decision frameworks for resource-constrained environments to maximize ecological and societal impact.

Education:

• PhD in Artificial Intelligence, INRIA, Univ. of Nancy HPC, France (2003)
• M.Sc. in Computer Science, ENS Lyon, UCBL, France (1998)

Chades pioneers computational sustainability through AI methods that optimize conservation decisions under uncertainty, bridging robotics-derived Markov decision processes with ecological management. Her research targets invasive species eradication, disease control (e.g., mosquito-borne illnesses), and threatened species protection, emphasizing mechanistic insights for long-term solutions. The interdisciplinary approach combines AI with ethics, philosophy, and human geography from project inception.

Publication trends reveal consistent focus on adaptive management using partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs), with applications spanning biodiversity conservation, biosecurity, and socio-technical systems. Her work demonstrates how computational methods solve real-world resource allocation dilemmas across ecological and public health domains.

Scientific Awards:

Chades previously led CSIRO's Conservation Decisions team (Land and Water division), developing priority threat management systems like Pilbara Priority Threat Management. Her current Socio-Technical Innovations team advances responsible AI for sustainability through collaborations with ecologists, social scientists, and policymakers. Research outputs directly inform conservation practices in Australia and globally, with applications in pest management and epidemiological control.