Although not without its challenges and setbacks, I am pleased to report that the past six-month period has been a relatively good one for the Centre.  We have completed our first full year of activities, passed through a detailed audit process, held the sixth meeting of Directors and the inaugural Annual General Meeting, and submitted a detailed annual report to the CRC Program Office and the first official set of financial statements to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.  Whilst the first year was inevitably an establishment period with progress on our research and related activities perhaps slower than everyone would like, I believe all Participants well understand that building a large collaborative research program is not an easy process!  Nevertheless, the honeymoon is well and truly over, and success on all fronts over this second year is critical for achieving the very high expectations of all involved.

In parallel with undertaking the necessary administrative duties that I have in my CRC-ACS role, I have been fortunate recently to also have the opportunity to interact with some of the key world leaders in our field.  From 21 to 26 August, I attended the 18^th International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM-18) at ICC Jeju, Korea, which was hosted by the Korean Society for Composite Materials.  This biennial event had 1,266 papers scheduled for presentation and was attended by a record 1,596 people from 45 countries, thus continuing the growth of what is clearly the leading forum for the world’s composite research community.  It is interesting to note that every delegate had to fly to Jeju Island, but nevertheless there were 158 registrations from China, 214 from Japan, and 614 from Korea.  Although there were 25 Australian delegates, including 11 students, one may draw a range of conclusions from this overwhelmingly strong commitment to composites science and technology in the north Asia-Pacific region.

Following this, I travelled to Europe where I had the responsibility of chairing a one-day workshop on 5 September in Stockholm, Sweden, hosted by the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) and the Swedish Society for Aeronautics & Astronautics.  The subject of the day was “Advanced materials and manufacturing – certification and operational challenges”, although the major focus was unsurprisingly on polymer matrix composites for large civil transport aircraft.  This was the fifth occasion on which the ICAS Programme Committee, comprising over 50 representatives from the world-wide aeronautics and aviation communities, focussed its biennial workshop on a specific issue of significance to the global aeronautical industry.  It was a very interesting experience for me developing this workshop and working with senior experts from the Boeing Company (USA), European Aviation Safety Agency and German Aerospace Center (Germany), European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company (France), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), National Aerospace Laboratories (India), and Saab Aeronautics (Sweden).  All of the presentations, including my summary of the proceedings, are now on the ICAS website, and I recommend that everyone working in our field spend some time reviewing them.  This was a unique event which enabled interdisciplinary engagement on an important topic for the industry, and is exactly the approach necessary to promote greater understanding and new opportunities for our technologies and capabilities.

As we are now close to the end of this rather tumultuous year, I am sure that many are now turning their attention to the planned activities for 2012 and wondering what impact the macro level trends will have on their respective operations.  Whilst I fear that there is more bad economic news still to come, I am quietly confident that our field will continue positively and be bolstered by more success stories like the first commercial flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on 26 October – a most auspicious event for All Nippon Airways, flying from Japan to Hong Kong.  Closer to home, I am hopeful that we will hear of further successes from both local and overseas colleagues, when we gather in Sydney (and surrounds) from 13 March 2012 for our second CRC-ACS annual meeting, followed by the ninth Composites Australia & CRC-ACS Annual Conference – “Diversity in Composites”.  See you there!

Prof. Murray L. Scott
Chief Executive Officer