OBITUARY

Graeme Bird died on 26/5/2018.

The life of Professor Graeme Bird AO FTSE was devoted to aeronautical engineering, and the sector has him to thank for developing a technique that continues to solve a wide range of aerodynamic and aerospace problems.

The technique, the direct simulation - Monte Carlo method (DMSC), is used for gas flow simulation, and DMSC calculations have helped the design of many space vehicles and missions.

Born in 1930, Professor Bird obtained a BSc in 1951, a BE in 1953, an ME in 1959 and a PhD in 1963. He served as a Scientific Officer with the Australian Defence Scientific Service (1953-59) before working with the University of Sydney for the rest of his career, teaching a generation of scientists and aeronautical engineers.

At only 34 he was appointed a Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering and Head of the Department at the University of Science, where he prepared graduates heading to government departments, the RAAF, airlines and the aircraft industry. He continued in this role until 1990.

For almost 40 years, he worked in close collaboration with NASA and held many temporary appointments at prominent institutions around the world. In 1990 he was one of the few non-Americans to be awarded the NASA Distinguished Scientist Award.

His contributions to science and engineering continue to be acknowledged by a biennial lecture given in his honour at the International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics.

Professor Bird published more than 160 articles and garnered about 8000 citations. In 2013, at the age of 83, he published his third and final monograph, The DMSC Method.

Eleven months before he died, Professor Bird was named an AO for distinguished service to engineering, particularly to the field of gas dynamics, as a researcher and academic, to professional scientific organisations and as a mentor of young scientists.

Professor Graeme Bird died on 26 May, aged 88.