Ian Cameron

Biography:

Ian Cameron is a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering, an inaugural Senior Fellow of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council and ALTC Discipline Scholar in Engineering & ICT. He is also a director and principal consultant at Daesim Technologies, Brisbane. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

He completed Chemical Engineering degrees at the University of NSW, and a masters degree at the University of Washington. He worked for 10 years for the CSR Group in diverse industry sectors such as sugar, building materials and industrial chemicals, having roles in process and control system design, plant commissioning, production management and environmental protection.

He obtained his PhD and DIC from Imperial College London in the area of Process Systems Engineering (PSE), and then worked full-time for 3 years as a United Nations (UNIDO) process engineering consultant in Argentina and a further 6 years in Turkey on a part-time basis. He has spent the last 25 years in research, consulting, teaching and learning innovation at The University of Queensland, having received numerous awards including the J.A. Brodie Medal of the Institution of Engineers Australia, the Australian Award for University Teaching in Physical Sciences 2003 and the Prime Minister’s Award for University Teacher of the Year. He was part of the team from UQ Chemical Engineering that won a national AAUT institutional award in 2005 for educational enhancement via project centred curriculum and course innovation.

He has held visiting appointments at Imperial College London, University College London, the Technical University of Denmark, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Edinburgh.

Research:

Ian’s research interests are in Process Systems Engineering, granulation, risk management, intelligent systems and engineering education. He has published over 220 international journal and conference papers in these and related areas.

His current work focuses on innovative methodologies to detect and analyse failures in process systems, including human factors. He also applies systems thinking to innovative design and design tools for higher education curricula in engineering. He has created numerous 4D virtual systems in conjunction with industry that are now deployed and used globally.

He is the co-author of 4 books, including a process systems modelling book used in over 35 countries, as well as a widely used book giving a comprehensive treatment of industrial process risk management based on almost 30 years of research and consultancy work.

Teaching and Learning:

Since arriving at UQ, Ian has been deeply involved in course and curriculum design innovation, having established, and taught, numerous project based courses around process systems engineering. He consults widely to the national and international engineering sector on curriculum design issues. He has recently been involved in educational aspects of Skolkovo Tech, a joint venture between MIT and the Russian government.

Projects:

1. Blended hazard identification methodologies for advanced process diagnosis
2. Resilience engineering: theory and practice
3. Improved decision making via 4D+ virtual learning systems
4. Innovative curricula design tools for higher education