Dr. Robert Gordon is the Degree Coordinator for the Master of Energy Systems degree, director of the UniMelb Automotive Engineering Graduate Program, and a Fellow of the Melbourne Energy Institute. Dr Gordon’s career has spanned management consultancy, dot-com start-ups, corporate finance, energy engineering and academia.
He has worked in Germany, London, Cambridge, Montreal, Sydney and Melbourne. His academic career is motivated by the challenges of using low-carbon fuels. His recent research includes investigation for the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to understand the opportunities for Australian industry from increasing penetration of hydrogen in our natural gas supply, and participating in an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) grant to modify a 500kW diesel-powered electricity generator to run on green hydrogen.
He received his doctorate from the University of Sydney in 2007, undertook a post-doctoral research position at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany) to investigate high-altitude relight of gas turbine engines, and was later awarded a Newton International Fellowship to research liquid biofuel combustion at the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Gordon then joined Rolls-Royce Industrial Gas Turbines in Montreal, Canada, to undertake the role of Research and Technology Team Leader, before joining the University of Melbourne in 2014. Dr. Gordon's research interests include: (1) the combustion of hydrogen, ethanol and low-carbon fuels, (2) industrial gas turbine efficiency and emissions, (3) fuel spray ignition and combustion, and (4) Flame-Wall Interactions (FWI) and Flame-Cooling Hole interactions (FCAI).
He is teaches ENGR90028 Introduction to Energy Systems, MCEN30018 Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, and is the coordinator for the ENGR90031 Energy Systems Project industrial placement program.
Dr. Gordon has published 32 peer-reviewed journal papers with over a thousand citations and an h-Index of 18 (Scopus 2020). He has a patent on a novel combustor concept for GT engines, and has given invited plenary presentations on Advanced Gas Turbine Design at the 2019 Australian Combustion Symposium, and on High Repetition Rate Laser Diagnostics at the 2011 AIAA meeting and the 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Laser Diagnostics. Recognition for his research includes an award for Most Distinguished Paper on Diagnostics in the 32nd International Symposium on Combustion, Best Student Paper at the 2015 Australian Combustion Symposium, and Outstanding ANZ Section Paper at the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion.
Dr. Gordon served as Colloquium Co-Chair for Gas Turbine Combustion and Emissions at the 2018 International Combustion Symposium, and has been invited to do so again at the 2020 International Combustion Symposium. He is a reviewer for leading journals such as Combustion and Flame, Combustion Theory and Modelling, Experiments in Fluids, Flow Turbulence and Combustion, Energy and Fluids, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Applied Physics D, Experimental Thermal and Fluids Science, and key international conferences such as the International Symposium on Combustion, and the ASME GT Expo.
Find out more about Robert Gordon's experience
Robert Gordon's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
Experimental assessment of the lean blow-off in a fully premixed annular combustor
Read moreRobert Gordon's selected work
Projects
Displaying the 13 most recent projects by Robert Gordon.
Project Types
7
Research Grant
4
Research Contracts
2
Internal Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 88 most recent scholarly works by Robert Gordon.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Newton International Fellowship
Fellow of the Melbourne Energy Institute
Credentials
Positions
Senior Lecturer
Mechanical Engineering
Member Of The Australian Institute Of Energy
Australian Institute of Energy
Member Of The Combustion Institute, Anz Section
Combustion Institute
Education
University Teaching
University of Melbourne
Ph.D
University of Sydney
Bachelors of Engineering (Mechanical)
University of Sydney
Bachelors of Commerce (Corporate Finance, Operations Research)
University of Sydney