Written by Kerryn Caulfield, Executive Director, Composites Australia Inc.
Murray Scott’s career spans more than four decades of aerospace engineering, composites innovation and international collaboration. He graduated from RMIT in 1978 with a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering and then obtained an MSc in Aircraft Design from Cranfield in the UK. His early work as a design engineer with the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) – now Boeing Aerostructures Australia (BAA), followed by an engineering role at Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) in the United States, gave him a global focus that would shape his contributions to advanced composite materials and their application in industry. A highlight of his period as an active researcher was the development of design and manufacturing technologies for integrally-stiffened post-buckling composite structures, which were validated on full-scale wing control surface demonstrators.
He led the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) for 13 years, guiding collaborations that delivered globally competitive composite technologies, including those adopted for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Since 2016, he has chaired the board of Advanced Composite Structures Australia, steering its role as both an engineering services provider and a composites product manufacturer for sectors including aerospace, defence, mining, transport and renewable energy.
Prof. Scott’s influence extends well beyond Australia. He served as President of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) and continues to contribute as an Honorary Fellow and Programme Committee member. He is also a World Fellow and past President of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM). In Australia, he founded the Australian Composite Structures Society (ACSS), which hosted the ICCM conference for the first time in the southern hemisphere in 1997 on the Gold Coast [ICCM-11] and subsequently again in 2019 in Melbourne [ICCM-22]. He currently chairs the Joint Board for Aerospace Engineering, a collaboration between Engineers Australia (EA) and the Royal Aeronautical Society Australian Division (RAeS), and last year was bestowed the rare honour by EA of Honorary Fellowship.
He has long worked with RMIT University as Professor, Adjunct Professor and industry adviser, linking research with application and supporting future engineers. He also serves on boards and committees in sustainability and manufacturing, including the R&D committee of Paintback Ltd, the paint industry’s product stewardship body.
Prof. Scott’s recent election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), recognised in Washington, DC in April, reflects the international calibre of engineering expertise developed in Australia.
