Associate Professor Adrian Orifici

Dr Orifici is an academic within the Aerospace Engineering and Aviation Discipline in the School of Engineering. He is responsible for teaching in aerospace structures and design, where he has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching and been recognised for his leadership in engineering education.

Dr Orifici’s research covers aerospace structures, fibre-reinforced composite materials and armour applications. A focus of his research is detailed study of damage mechanisms in materials and structures, and linking these to high fidelity computational models. In aerospace structures his work has led to innovations in analysing postbuckling structures and aircraft repair, and bio-inspired concepts for novel composite laminates and metal-composite joints. In defence materials he supervises research projects developing new understanding and advanced material models for ballistic and blast applications.

Dr Orifici has worked extensively with industry and in collaborative research projects, and has been seconded at several leading research institutions around the world including NASA and the German Aerospace Center. He is responsible for the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research students, and has over 70 publications that can be found at Google Scholar and the RMIT Research Repository.

Research

Current research projects:

• DMTC “Land Vehicle Alternative Material Characterisation”
• Supervision of PhD students, Masters students and undergraduate thesis projects

Previous projects have included:

• EU 7th Framework Programme, “New Robust DESign Guideline for Imperfection Sensitive COmposite Launcher Structures” (DESICOS)
• ARC Linkage, “Optimised flush repairs for dissimilar composite materials” (Boeing)
• CRC-ACS, “Robust composite repairs”
• CRC-ACS, “Mechanical behaviour and failure in composite structures”
• DMTC, “Ballistic Performance of Thick UHMW Polyethylene Armour”
• EU Sixth Framework Programme, “Improved MATerial Exploitation at Safe Design of COmposite Airframe Structures by Accurate Simulation of Collapse” (COCOMAT)
• Research secondments at NASA Langley Research Centre (10 weeks), US Naval Research Laboratory (3 weeks), Politecnico di Milano (6 months), German Aerospace Center (5 months)

Awards and recognition

• 2016, Best Paper Prize at the Advanced Composites Innovation Conference, 12-14 April 2016, (last and supervising author).
• 2014, ICAS John J. Green Award, from International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, for “outstanding activities and intellectual performance in International Collaboration in the field of aeronautic cooperations”
• 2012, Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence - Early Career Researcher Award for the top early career researcher at RMIT
• Course Coordinator and sole lecturer for AERO2359, which was recognised for outstanding achievement based on student surveys on course content and teaching quality every year from 2009-2013.
• 2010, Finalist, Australian Industry Defence Network, Young Achiever Award
• 2009, RMIT School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Award for outstanding service in teaching and research
• 2007, “Highly Commended Paper” Prize at the 12th Australian International Aerospace Congress, 19-22 March 2007, (first author).
• 2007, Letter of commendation for PhD thesis from RMIT University after independent reviewers’ comments, for work “strongly competitive at an international level”. 

• PhD (Aerospace Engineering), RMIT University, 2007
• BEng (Aerospace) 1st Class Honours, RMIT University, 2003

Employment history

• 2009-current, Academic, School of Engineering, RMIT University
  • 2016, Associate Professor
  • 2014-2016, Deputy Head, Learning and Teaching, Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
  • 2012-2014, Program Manager, Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
  • 2009, Senior Lecturer
• 2007-2009, Research Fellow, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University
• 2006-2007, Professional Officer, CRC for Advanced Composite Structures

Industry collaboration

• CRC for Advanced Composite Structures
• Boeing Australia
• Defence Materials Technology Centre
• Defence Science and Technology Group

Professional interests and links to industry

• President, Australian Composite Structures Society
• Member, Composites Working Group, International Association for the Engineering Modelling, Analysis and Simulation Community (NAFEMS).
• Technical Committee, Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics
• Technical Committee, International Conference on Structural Integrity and Fracture

Scholarships

• 2011, RMIT Research Leave and RMIT Early Career Researcher Travel Award to support 3 month secondment in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
• 2010, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) and RMIT Research Leave funding to support a 10-week secondment in the NASA LaRC Durability and Damage Tolerance Branch, hosted by the National Institute of Aerospace.
• 2008, Victoria Fellowship from Victorian Government, to support an 8-week research mission involving 3 international conferences, a 3-week secondment, software training, and site visits to key industry and research institutions in Europe and US.
• 2008, AFAS / FEAST-France Fellowship from the Australian-French Association for Science and Technology (AFAS) and the French Embassy to support a study mission visiting French industry and research institutions.
• 2008, CASS Foundation Travel Grant for Early Career Researchers to support participation at international conferences in Germany and USA.
• 2007, Travel bursary covering all costs to attend Cooperative Research Centre Association Annual Conference, as part of the “Early Career Researcher Showcase”.
• 2006, Scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for six months PhD research at Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy.
• 2005, Scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for five months PhD research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Braunschweig, Germany.
• 2004-2007, Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship from the Australian Government for three years of PhD research.
• 2004-2007, Scholarship from the CRC for Advanced Composite Structures for three years of PhD research.