Researcher

Dr Sonya A Brown

My Expertise

Aircraft, Aerospace, Aviation, Aeroplane, Airplane, Aircraft Crash, Aeronautical, Aerospace Materials, Aerospace Structures, Aerospace Systems, Aerospace Engineering, Aircraft Design, Aerospace Design, Manufacturing, Crash Investigation, Composite Materials, Carbon Fibre, Carbon Composites, Multifunctional Composites

Fields of Research (FoR)

Aerospace engineering, Aerospace materials, Aerospace structures, Composite and hybrid materials, Functional materials, Polymers and plastics

Biography

Dr Sonya A Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Dr Brown is an expert in aerospace design and carbon composite materials. Dr Brown is focused on education and research in aerospace design, from conceptual vehicle design to detailed structures and systems design. Additionally, Dr Brown's research interests include the continued advancement of high-quality carbon composite...view more

Dr Sonya A Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Design in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Dr Brown is an expert in aerospace design and carbon composite materials. Dr Brown is focused on education and research in aerospace design, from conceptual vehicle design to detailed structures and systems design. Additionally, Dr Brown's research interests include the continued advancement of high-quality carbon composite materials, and the manufacturing technologies to produce composite components reliably for the aerospace industry.

Research Projects

Examples of Dr Brown's research projects include:

Static and fatigue characterization of composite materials
Multifunctional composites for structural supercapacitors
Conductive composite materials
Fibre-reinforced magneto-polymer matrix composites
Automated fibre placement (AFP) for complex curvatures
Carbon fibre composite manufacturing process optimisation

Dr Brown has collaborated with organisations including the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group, Axowind Holdings, and Quickstep Technologies.

PhD Opportunities

Dr Brown is currently seeking motivated PhD candidates in the areas of multifunctional composite materials and composite manufacturing process optimisation.

Students must be competitive for UNSW scholarship rounds. If you are a high performing student and interested, please contact Dr Sonya Brown: sonya.brown@unsw.edu.au

Aerospace Expertise

Dr Brown has provided expertise in aerospace topics and aircraft incidents as follows:

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Boeing 737 MAX 8 disaster in Ethiopia 2019 (TV: ABC News, Sky World News; Radio: ABC Radio National)
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 aircraft crash in Iran 2020 (TV: ABC News, Sky World News)
C130 firefighting aircraft crash in NSW 2020 (TV: SBS News)
Western Sydney Airport concerns regarding fuel dumping 2020 (Print: Penrith Press)
Flying Cars 2020 (TV: ABC News; Print: ABC News; Radio: ABC Radio)
Sriwijaya Air SJ182 aircraft crash in Indonesia 2021 (Radio: ABC NewsRadio)
Pratt & Whitney 4000 uncontained engine failures on Boeing 777 aircraft 2021 (TV: ABC News)
Flying Cars 2021 (Print: Daily Telegraph, DriveNow, Fassifern Guardian & Tribune, Executive Traveller, MSN News, Gizmodo Australia; Radio: ABC Canberra, ABC Illawarra, ABC Regional SA, 2GB, 2SM, 2CC, 4CA, 2DU, 98five Sonshine FM, Alive 90.5 FM, 88.6 Plenty Valley FM, RhemaFM, Joy 94.9)
Aircraft Storage and Return to Service 2021 (Print: The Guardian; Radio: ABC NewsRadio, ABC Radio National, ABC Sydney, ABC Melbourne, ABC Darwin, 3AW)
China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 aircraft crash in China 2022 (Print: BBC News)
Flying Cars 2022 (Radio: ABC Canberra)
Boeing 737 firefighting aircraft crash in WA 2023 (TV: ABC News, Print: ABC News)
Flying Cars 2023 (TV: ABC News, 7News; Print: Al Jazeera; Radio: ABC NewsRadio; Podcast: news.com.au I've Got News For You)

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, awarded 2012
Bachelor of Engineering - Aeronautical (Honours Class I and the University Medal), The University of Sydney, awarded 2007