Our People

Distinguished Professor Brian Falzon, Dean 

Distinguished Professor Brian G. Falzon is the Dean of Engineering, Design and Built Environment at Western Sydney University. Between 2021 and 2023, he was Distinguished Professor and Chair of Advanced Composite Materials and Aerospace Structures at RMIT University, Director of RMIT University’s Space Industry Hub, Director of the Victorian Node of the Smart Satellite Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat CRC), and Education and Training Program Manager for the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC). He was Head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast, from 2015 to 2021, and was appointed to the prestigious UK Royal Academy of Engineering – Bombardier Chair in Aerospace Composites in 2013.

Between 2008 and 2012 Prof Falzon held the Foundation Chair in Aerospace Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where he was also Director of Research, Head of Aerospace Engineering, and Deputy Head of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Between 1996 and 2008, Prof Falzon was at Imperial College London where he joined as a postdoctoral research fellow before becoming an academic staff member. He holds Adjunct Professorships at Queen’s University Belfast, Monash University and the University of New South Wales and was a Visiting Researcher at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Prof Falzon graduated with a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Sydney in 1996 and was the recipient of the Golden Jubilee graduate prize. He also gained a Bachelor of Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering with first-class honours and a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Physics and Pure Mathematics from the same University.

Prof Falzon is a passionate engineer and is internationally renowned for his industry-driven work on the computational analysis, design, manufacture and testing of advanced composite structures. An accomplished world-leading researcher (in the top 1% in the field of Material Science  - Elsevier ranking 2023), his work has had global impact. He has published over 240 peer-reviewed journal/conference papers and book chapters, one book, and edited four others. He made seminal contributions to the analysis of structural stability of thin-skinned composite aerostructures which had a significant influence on the innovative designs subsequently implemented by Boeing Aerostructures Australia on the Boeing 787 and FA-18E/F programs. Prof Falzon was also key in helping define new modelling methodologies for the UK government-backed research program, ‘Next Generation Composite Wing’. His work on composite failure mechanisms, impact damage modelling and fracture toughness characterisation have helped the NASA Advanced Composites Project, which focused on developing reliable methods to predict structural failure. He has fostered extensive industry collaborations and in addition to the industry/government partnerships mentioned above, he has also delivered projects for Airbus, QinetiQ, UK MoD/dstl, McLaren Racing, Rockwell Collins, Thales Australia, DSTG, and Artemis Technologies.

He is the recipient of three awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society and in 2009 he was honoured with an Australian Leadership Award, from the Australian Davos Connection (ADC), in recognition of his contribution to issues of national importance and demonstrated leadership in his field. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, several professional organisations, scientific and thought leadership committees, and sits on the Editorial Board of four journals. In 2010 and 2012 he was selected to serve on the Research Evaluation Committee panel for the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) exercise. Prof Falzon is also the co-founder of Veryan Medical Limited, a company spin-off from Imperial College London, established in 2003, which developed a new vascular biomimetic stent (for which he holds two patents). Veryan was acquired by Otsuka Medical Devices UK Ltd in December 2018. In 2022 the stent was granted a Good Design Award from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion. In 2018 Prof Falzon was awarded the ‘Belfast Ambassador of the Year’ award by Visit Belfast for promoting advanced manufacturing in Northern Ireland and consequently winning the bid to host a major conference for the city, the 23^rd International Conference on Composite Materials, which took place in August 2023.

Key People in our School