Professor Murray Leslie Scott is the 2019 winner of the biennial Lawrence Hargrave Award given out by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Australian division.
The prize was established 20 years ago to recognise achievement at all levels and in all disciplines of aerospace within Australia and is given to an Australian who has made a significant contribution to Australian aviation.
Professor Scott has over 35 years’ experience in the field of aerospace engineering particular in the design and manufacturing of advanced fiber-composite aerospace structures, primarily as CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre [CRC] for Advanced Composite Structures. The center underpinned the design and production of advanced composite structures for the Boeing 787 wings – a highlight for Australia’s aerospace manufacturing capability. He has also played leadership roles in establishing other high-value R&D programs such as CRCACS Helicopter Composite Structures (2007), Defence Materials Technology Centre (2008), CRC-ACS Extension Program (2010), and Innovative Manufacturing CRC (2015).
In 1992, Professor Scott founded the Australian Composite Structures Society, aimed at fostering expertise in advanced composites in Australia, and was a co-founder of the AIAC congress series which began in 1985. This major event has now reached the 18th in the series with AIAC18 currently being held in Melbourne.
He has been elected honorary fellow of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) where he also served a two year term as president, and is also a world fellow and past president of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM). For many years he also took the role of chair of the EA/RAeS Joint Board for Aerospace Engineering. Scott also co-edited the book Composite Materials for Aircraft Structures.
This story is adapted from material from The Aeronautical Society, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
