Adrian Orifici

Dr Adrian Orifici is a Professor in Aerospace Engineering, with expertise in aerospace structures, composite materials, advanced computational techniques and material characterisation.

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 100 publications that can be found at Google Scholar and the RMIT Research Repository.

Industry collaboration:
CRC for Advanced Composite Structures
Boeing Australia
Defence Materials Technology Centre
Defence Science and Technology Group

Awards:
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

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”.