Jason Harry Falla Middleton

Jason undertook a BSc at Monash University, and completed with First Class Honours awarded in 1971. After spending a short time working as an operations researcher at Dulux in Melbourne he undertook a PhD in the Mathematics Department at Monash, studying buoyant convection and core flows. While doing this he concurrently completed a Commercial Pilot Licence and Instrument Rating and began flying charter to country Victoria. On completion of his PhD he took up a postdoctoral position at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California) in 1976 and undertook research expeditions to Antarctica. He returned to Australia to UNSW in 1980 to teach physical oceanography and began planning and implementing experiments to measure currents and tides in the Great Barrier Reef, and continued his coastal oceanography research until 2009. In 1993 he initiated plans for a Bachelor of Aviation at UNSW, and this began with both flying and management streams in 1995. Flying operations were undertaken at Bankstown Airport under under the leadership of Greg Clynick and in 1998 the University obtained its own Air Operators Certificate. Later in 2000 a Masters degree in Aviation Management was established. During his career he served on many committees, including the Australian Research Council Earth Sciences Panel, the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, and the Advisory Board of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). Professor Middleton was appointed to the position of Head, Department of Aviation in 1995, and was responsible for overall management and performance of the School until 2017. The School of Aviation is now the largest of its kind in Australia. As an Emeritus Professor, he continues to engage in airborne research, and has recently published again in the field of buoyant convection. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2025. Aviation; meteorology; oceanography; environmental fluid dynamics, airborne remote sensing. Fields of Research (FoR): Meteorology, Physical Oceanography, Aerodynamics (excl. Hypersonic Aerodynamics), Environmental Science and Management, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing