Professor Vincent Wheatley is co-Director of the Centre for Hypersonics at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 2005. Vincent is an expert in the computational, experimental and theoretical modelling of supersonic gas and plasma flows. His most significant research contributions have been on overcoming the challenges facing accelerator scramjets and the magnetic suppression of shock driven instabilities in fusion plasmas. Vincent has led experimental research projects in UQ’s T4 Shock Tunnel ranging from fundamental experiments on porous fuel injection and boundary layer combustion to the testing of complex-geometry scramjet engines. In 2018, he was named Australia’s Research Field Leader in Aviation and Aerospace Engineering. He also received the 2017 Australian Award for University Teaching – Award for Teaching Excellence (Physical Sciences and Engineering) and has supervised 14 PhD students to completion, with all moving on to research careers in industry, government or academia.