VCRS Recipient: Sonya Brown

First year PhD candidate, Sonya Brown, has had a passion for space and flying ever since primary school.

After her schooling in South Australia, where she completed what she calls the ‘suicide five’ (Maths 1, Maths 2, Chemistry, Physics and English Studies), Sonya joined Sydney University’s prestigious BE Aeronautical Engineering program.

“During my undergraduate degree, I helped build a light aircraft as part of a small construction team. It was this ‘hands on’ approach to engineering that made me want to pursue a postgraduate study in the field,” she says.

22 year old Sonya is now a research student in composite materials for aerospace applications with aspirations of someday working for Boeing or NASA.

"With the growth in the use of composite materials, there has been a resulting increase in the need to understand the strength between components and ongoing strength of any repairs made to the composite structures,” she says.

“In older aircraft, composites were primarily used for non-critical components, such as fairings. Recent aircraft, such as the B787 and A350 incorporate significant proportions of these materials, including in their primary structure,” says Sonya.

In the future she wants to work in a research role, developing ‘failure theory’. “I hope that this will lead to involvement in the composite research that is undertaken at Boeing Phantom Works or NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, the leaders in aerospace related research.”

Sonya was recently awarded one Australia’s top PhD scholarships, a $30,000 Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarship, which will support her ongoing study.

Graduates of the PhD program from the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at Sydney have recently taken up posts at Hawker de Havilland and the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, so Sonya looks to be well on track for a bright future.