Engineering academic receives prestigious research fellowship

A USQ academic has been awarded a prestigious national research fellowship.

Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre (CESRC) member, Dr Nam Mai-Duy, recently received an inaugural Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship Award to further his ground-breaking engineering and scientific research.

Since joining USQ in 2006, Dr Mai-Duy has been instrumental in building the international research profile of the CESRC, particularly in the field of numerical modelling of engineering and science problems with meshless methodologies.

The ARC Future Fellowship, Dr Mai-Duy’s third ARC award, is recognition of his seminal work in developing a unique novel approach based on neural-network-like approximants.

'This four-year Future Fellowship will allow me to further develop our powerful numerical approach and apply it to solve a wide range of interdisciplinary problems of great significance to our national economy', Dr Mai-Duy said.

'For example, the engineering of new and advanced composite materials will rely on the manipulation of the microstructure and such manipulation will be achieved numerically with our proposed computational methodology.'

Dr Mai-Duy said he had enjoyed the supportive research environment since joining USQ.

'The project will generate serious interaction between the CESRC and the Centre of Excellence in Engineered Fibre Composites (CEEFC) within the University, as well as between these USQ Centres and the Rheology Group (School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Sydney), and the Micro-Structured Fluids Research Group (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney).'

Deputy Vice Chancellor (Scholarship) Professor Graham Baker said USQ congratulated Dr Mai-Duy on his outstanding achievement.

'The University is extremely proud of Dr Mai-Duy, particularly when you consider the calibre of researchers from other universities who have won ARC Fellows,' Professor Baker said.

'Dr Mai-Duy is an exceptionally talented researcher who produces core research outcomes, mentors other University staff and builds on our profile.

'This is a fantastic scheme which builds the missing layer in Australia’s Innovation sector and the Government should be congratulated for its foresight.'

The Federal Government, through the ARC, initiated the program to support mid-career researchers in Australia in order to boost capacity, provide career paths for the nation’s most talented and to drive research outputs.

The full results of the inaugural ARC Future Fellowships are published at: www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/