Michael Bermingham

Dr Michael Bermingham’s research is primarily concerned with advanced manufacturing of metal materials. This also involves metal alloy development including understanding how the manufacturing process influences the structure and behaviour of the material and how alloy design can be optimised for the process. He has research expertise in solidification processing (including casting, welding, soldering and additive manufacturing) as well as subtractive metal machining technologies.

Michael was awarded his PhD from the University of Queensland in 2010 with a Dean’s award for Outstanding Higher Degree Theses. From 2010-2015 he completed a post-doctoral appointment sponsored by the then Defence Materials Research Centre (now DMTC Ltd) working with Australian manufacturers in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter supply chain. This work principally centred on developing advanced machining technologies for titanium fabrication. The impact of this work was assessed and awarded the highest rating of “A: Outstanding impacts in terms of reach and significance” in the 2012 ATN Go8 EIA National Report. During this time Michael also completed a post-doctoral appointment investigating new materials and design solutions for implantable medical devices in collaboration with a multinational medical device manufacturer.

Michael became a Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering in 2016 and has been a Senior Lecturer since 2020. He teaches into undergraduate and postgraduate courses in materials, manufacturing and design and has won a number of teaching awards including a 2020 Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning. In 2023 he became an ARC Future Fellow seeking to improve the quality of 3D printed metals.

Michael has been successful in obtaining competitive grant funding including over $9.2m in ARC projects (1x ARC Future Fellowship, 1x ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, 2 x ARC Discovery Projects, 1 x ARC Linkage Project, 1 x ARC Research Hub) as well as $0.5m in funding across multiple internal schemes and direct industry sponsored/contract research projects.