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DSTO - AIP Physics Scholarships

Scott Moss studied Applied Physics at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)before completing his PhD.

Dr. Scott Moss working in DSTO's Smart Structures and Advanced Diagnostics Lab to develop energy harvesting devices to power Structural Health Monitoring Systems for use on ADF aircraft and helicopters.

"As an undergraduate at RMIT Applied Physics I was lucky enough to takes courses by Prof Alex Moodie and Prof Heinrich Wagenfeld, who through stories and example motivated the "young me" to pursue a career in research.  I studied towards a PhD at RMIT under the supervision of Prof Peter Paterson within the Surface Science Lab where a large number of industrial/practical research problems were tackled. I worked at Wollongong University Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, and then as a junior lecturer at University of Tasmania School of Applied Science, before joining DSTO Air Vehicles Division in 1999. 

"Within DSTO I have worked in the area of Aircraft Structural Health Monitoring, as part of a team developing practical systems to monitor the safety of an aircrafts structure.  I am currently involved in research to develop "energy harvesting" devices that use the vibrations an aircraft experiences in flight. The energy harvesting devices turn mechanical vibrations into electrical power, and will one day replace batteries in certain applications.  In 2003/2004 through a DSTO Science Fellowship I was able to spend a year at the University of California - Los Angeles, to develop various ideas for energy harvesting.

"At it's simplest level the study of energy harvesting from mechanical vibrations uses the physics of harmonic motion and resonance, concepts most high school physics students would have come across.

"Physics is meant to be difficult, however it is also satisfying and can be a lot of fun.  Physics will pay your bills and can take you across the world."