Mary completed her MSc (Meteorology) Degree, University of Melbourne in 1970.

She started with the Bureau the same year, working in areas including the Australian Numerical Meteorology Research Centre (the forerunner to BMRC), Scientific and Technical Services Branch, Executive Branch Projects and Secretariat Section and her previous position, Head of Climate Analysis in the National Climate Centre.

Mary finds it difficult to isolate highlights in a career 'full of different and exciting experiences' but her first international role, as Australian representative on the Intergovernmental TOGA (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program) Board, was 'memorable'. Australia was the base for the major field experiment, which was 'good for our economy and good for science'. Mary was invited to give the after dinner address in the National Gallery Great Hall at the final TOGA conference in 1995. Creative, as always, she based her speech on an alternative interpretation of the acronym - The Other Guy's Air. Mary has travelled extensively for the Bureau, visiting Switzerland, Italy, China, UK and the US.

As a member of the Advisory Working Group for the WMO Commission for Climatology, Mary was instrumental in establishing the Climate of the 20th Century Project (C2OC). Her suggestion for a book documenting climate highlights during the 1900s was approved by WMO Congress in 1995. 'A large number of countries are interested in contributing and we are negotiating with a publisher', she says. Mary also participated in the first pilot project for the International Research Institute which gave Australia the opportunity to be part of new developments in international seasonal climate forecasting and its application to economic sectors such as agriculture.

Bureau of Meteorology