Ilija Denis Šutalo was born in Melbourne Australia in 1968. He completed his degree with honours (1991) and doctorate in chemical engineering (1996) at the University of Melbourne, and Masters of Business and Administration at the Australian Graduate School of Management (University of New South Wales and University of Sydney) (2007). Dr Ilija Šutalo received the international ‘2000 Extraction and Processing Science Award’ in Nashville, United States, for journal papers on extractive metallurgy and related sciences from TMS (Minerals Metals Materials Society). After a short period as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, he worked in industry as a project metallurgist for BHP at Olympic Dam.
Dr Ilija Šutalo was a research scientist and research group leader of the Fluid Dynamics research group at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for 17 years. He received the CSIRO Business Excellence Medal in 2004. Dr Ilija Šutalo was an adjunct associate professor at Curtin University of Technology, School of Public Health – Health Services Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and a Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust). He has published journal articles in the fields of medical science, fluid dynamics, and mineral extraction and processing. Dr Ilija Šutalo previously lectured in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He was an Innovation Manager at Monash University and then a Senior Business Development Manager at the University of Melbourne. Dr Ilija Šutalo is currently the Business Development Manager for Biosecurity at CSIRO.
Dr Ilija Šutalo has written the award-winning book ‘Croatians in Australia: Pioneers, Settlers and their Descendants’ (2004) which documents the history of Croatian settlement in Australia. He has written articles on Croatian settlement in Australia in The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins (2001), Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2005), Croatian Studies Review (2010), Hrvatski Iseljenički Zbornik 2011 (Croatian Emigrant Almanac 2011) (2010), Hrvatska Izvan Domovine (Croatia Abroad) I (2015), II (2017) and III (2019), and Leksikon hrvatskog iseljeništva i manjina (Lexicon of Croatian emigrants and minorities) (2020). Šutalo was a guest lecturer for the online Croatian Studies unit at Macquarie University where he presented ‘Croatian community, settlement and contribution in Australia’ (2020). He was a curator of the exhibition, Croatian Settlement in Victoria, The Untold Story (1999), at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. Dr Ilija Šutalo is also writing another book: Croatian Anzacs. In 2005 he received Victoria’s Award for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs, award for Service Delivery to Multicultural Victoria – Community Heritage.
His parents migrated to Australia from Croatia in the 1960s and he is the eldest of their five sons. Ilija Šutalo grew up in the Croatian community in Australia, attended Croatian community halls, associations and sporting venues (normally referred to as ‘Croatian clubs’), Croatian Catholic centres or parishes, Croatian language schools, Croatian Summer School of Language and Culture camps and Croatian conferences. He was an active member of the Croatian Students’ Association and the Melbourne University Croatian Club. He has written articles for the Australian-Croatian magazine Klokan (Kangaroo) and newspaper Hrvatski Vjesnik (Croatian Herald). Ilija Šutalo is married and has two sons and two daughters. He is the owner of one of the largest collections of books on the history of Croatian emigrants and Croatian genealogies outside Croatia.
Be proud of your Croatian heritage and culture and in your own way promote ties with Croatians and Croatia, says Ilija Šutalo.
Text and photo courtesy of: Dr Ilija Šutalo