Hello, and thank you for showing enough interest in my life that you actually clicked on a link entitled “About me”.
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. As part of my duties here at Monash, I work in the Laboratory for Turbulence Research in Aerospace and Combustion (LTRAC), conducting research on compressible and multi-phase fluid flow.
I obtained my undergraduate degrees in Mechanical & Aerospace from Monash University in 2005, including one year of study at the University of Queensland. Upon completion of my undergraduate degree I immediately enrolled in a PhD at Monash University, under the supervision of Prof’s Damon Honnery & Julio Soria. I delayed the start of my PhD for six months however, to work with Dr. Nigel Smith at the Defence Science & Technology Organization, performing numerical modelling of scramjet engines.
My PhD was a mix of technique development and fundamental fluid physics, focusing on supersonic jet flows (jets of gas moving faster than the speed of sound). I was fortunate enough to be in a laboratory, and working with supervisors, with an absolute wealth of knowledge in the field of optical diagnostics. Even with access to all this expertise, the PhD was hard going; the kind of measurements I was trying to perform are notoriously difficult.
I was able to take a respite from beating my head against the measurement wall, when I was fortunate enough to receive a Fulbright Fellowship in the 2007-2008 round. I spent eighteen months working with Prof. Ron Hanson, at Stanford University’s High Temperature Gas Dynamics Laboratory. While at Stanford, I worked on developing techniques for measuring fluid temperature using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence, and undertook a series of measurements in the shock tubes laboratory of Prof. Hanson. The Fulbright Fellowship was not only incredibly important from an academic & professional perspective, but also a personal one; in a salsa class at Stanford I met my wife, the wonderfully talented Dr. Laura Edgington-Mitchell.
Upon my return to Monash, I (eventually) completed my PhD, and took up a casual lecturing position at Monash. This has now led to the position I now hold, conducting teaching and research in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace engineering. I am lucky enough to still be working with Prof’s Honnery & Soria, as well as my long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Callum Atkinson, in the Laboratory for Turbulence Research in Aerospace and Combustion.
I have set up this page in the hope that it will be educational, and hopefully at least a little entertaining. If you have any questions about any of the material here, please feel free to contact me.