9 Questions with Stephen Joseph

Our PhDs are playing a significant role within our program, and in the broader industry.

Stephen Joseph is a PhD candidate at the The University of Queensland, and whose work concerns the hot topic of thermal management in ceramic-matrix-composite structures for scramjet engines.

Joseph began working with CMCs for hypersonic flight during his undergraduate thesis and continues to work at the intersection of "two of the most complex problems in engineering today", as he explains below.

Q1. Under which ACM CRC Research Program does your PhD project sit?

My research project sits under program RP1 - High Performance Composite Materials.

Q2. What is the focus of your PhD?

Integration of Cooling into Ceramic Matrix Composites for Scramjet Vehicle Applications

Q3. When did you become interested in this field?

I’ve been around fibre-reinforced-composite materials since 2016, having worked for A/Prof. Michael Heitzmann and the UQ Composites Research Group within The University of Queensland. 

In 2020, I had my first taste of Ceramic-Matrix-Composites (CMCs) through my undergraduate thesis, in which we designed and manufactured a proof-of-concept scramjet combustor. 

Q4. What made you interested in it?

I mean, it’s a HOT topic!! It marries two of the most complex problems in engineering today; hypersonic aerothermal heating and advanced materials processing.

Q5. What do you hope to achieve through your PhD? What challenges are you hoping to solve?

Finding out how I fit as one of the pieces of this technological puzzle is the reason why I did a PhD. My niche is that I’ve decided to put porosity under a microscope and understand what mechanisms influence its formation. The challenge I’m hoping to solve is to identify whether we, as engineers of hypersonic CMC structures, can tune porosity through manufacturing process design. 

Q6. What are your long-term goals/ambitions?

The concept of ‘my life’s work’ feels over-constraining - but on the current trajectory I’m on, I would say to lead an R&D team that are translating CMC technologies into hypersonic structures. 

If I’m application-agnostic, then I would say solving complex problems through leading a group of gifted individuals. 

Q7. What’s the best thing about being an ACM CRC PhD student?

To be part of a large organisation that connects industry leaders to the next generation of innovators. The ACM CRC partner meeting was an awesome networking event where I gained awareness of the cutting-edge composite materials research that’s happening right here in Australia! 

Q8. What one piece of advice would you give to people thinking of undertaking a PhD in the composites manufacturing area?

Try to find your ‘simple’ in the complex problem. Composite materials can be an overwhelming field because, by definition, it is a combinatorial problem with infinite solutions. Before you even start, connect with who you intend to have as your supervisor. Lock in your application. Shortlist your material(s). This will save you in your PhD application, project proposal and literature review. 

Also, don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out from the beginning. Where you start is SO different from where you’ll finish. This is what the PhD has taught me.

Q.9 Tell us something about you that would surprise/impress people.

I’m in a rat-themed band and we write songs about cheese.