Dr Jen Taylor
RGGS student 1986-1990
Jen Taylor is an Executive Director within CSIRO where she leads the Future Industries sector. The sector hosts the CSIRO research portfolios of Agriculture and Food, Health and Biosecurity, Manufacturing, Australian Animal Health Laboratory and Science Connect.
Dr Taylor is passionate about amplifying Australia’s innovation strengths through effective collaboration and on behalf of CSIRO is a key contact for relevant agencies facing the agricultural, health, biosecurity and innovation sectors.
Dr Taylor has a scientific track record in genomics and data science. She trained in medical genetics, genomics, statistics and bioinformatics. Jen completed honours in biochemistry at the University of Queensland and a PhD in medical genetics at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research studying candidate gene identification strategies in human disease.
Jen held roles as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Statistics and then team leader for functional analysis at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, both at the University Oxford, UK.
Jen returned to Australia late in 2008 to join CSIRO to develop research towards understanding crop and pathogen genomes of agricultural importance.
Between 2020 and 2022, Jen led the Systems research program in CSIRO Agriculture and Food. This program and research portfolio delivers innovative farming systems that improve agricultural productivity and resilience under economic and environmental variability.
Jen Taylor held roles of Science Director and Director of CSIRO Agriculture and Food (A&F) from 2021 to 2024. In these roles she led the development of strategy and portfolio management together with the A&F leadership team.
In 2025, Jen Taylor joined the Executive team of CSIRO as one of 3 science Executive Directors.
To date, Jen has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed research articles (H-index 61).