Christine O'Keefe
Australian mathematician
Christine Margaret O'Keefe is an Australian mathematician and computer scientist whose research has included work in finite geometry, information security, and data privacy. She is a researcher at CSIRO, and was the lead author of a 2017 report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on best practices for de-identification of personally identifying data.
Early Life and Education
Christine Margaret O'Keefe initially intended to study medicine before pivoting to mathematics at the University of Adelaide, where she earned first-class honours in 1982. She returned to Adelaide for doctoral study in 1985, completing her Ph.D. in 1988 under the supervision of Rey Casse. Her dissertation examined t-spreads of finite projective spaces, situating her early career firmly within the field of finite geometry.
Academic Career
O'Keefe held positions as a lecturer and research fellow at the University of Western Australia from 1999 to 2001, after which she returned to the University of Adelaide. There she progressed through roles including lecturer, senior lecturer, Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, and senior research fellow. During this period her research interests began shifting from pure finite geometry toward information security, a transition that would define the next phase of her career.
Career at CSIRO
In 2000, O'Keefe moved to CSIRO to pursue her growing focus on information security. At CSIRO she founded the Information Security and Privacy Group in 2002, subsequently becoming head of the Health Informatics Group in 2004, Theme Leader for Health Data and Information in 2006, and Strategic Operations Director for Preventative Health National Research in 2008. Concurrently, she completed an MBA at Australian National University in 2008.
From 2009 to 2010, O'Keefe served as Director of the Population Health Research Network Centre and Professor of Health Sciences at Curtin University before returning to CSIRO as Science Leader for Privacy and Confidentiality within the Department of Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics.
Notable Work
O'Keefe was the lead author of a 2017 report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner addressing best practices for the de-identification of personally identifying data. This work reflects her sustained engagement with the practical and policy dimensions of data privacy, building on earlier research that applied geometric methods to problems such as secret sharing — an area noted in her Australian Mathematical Society Medal citation as a bridge between her foundational mathematical work and her later focus on information security.
Recognition
O'Keefe has been a Fellow of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications since 1991. In 1996 she received the Institute's Hall Medal in recognition of her contributions to finite geometry, including the discovery of new hyperovals. In 2000 she was awarded the Australian Mathematical Society Medal, becoming the first woman to receive that honor, and in the same year was elected a Fellow of the Australian Mathematical Society. The Medal citation acknowledged both her core work in finite geometry and her early research applying geometry to secret sharing.
