Alec obtained his BAppSc(Applied Physics) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1979. He then moved to the United Kingdom and spent one year working for Marconi Avionics and four years at the University of Bath. In 1984 he returned to Australia and joined the then School of Physics & Geosciences at the then WA Institute of Technology. He completed his MAppSc in 1987 on a precision underwater acoustic surveying system for use by maritime archaeologists. He then moved to Melbourne and worked for Internode Pty Ltd, developing a similar system.

Alec returned to CMST in 1991 and has been working on a variety of projects in the fields of marine acoustics, marine vehicle motions, and instrumentation. Alec completed his PhD at Curtin in 2004 on the topic of using a towed hydrophone array to measure the underwater acoustic noise radiated by the tow-vessel.

EMAIL: A.Duncan
Telephone: +61 8 9266 3569

NAME: Alec Duncan
PROFESSION: Physicist
YEARS AT CURTIN: 1991 - current
POSITION: Senior Research Fellow

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:
Marine Acoustics
Marine Instrumentation
Underwater Vehicles
Underwater vehicle and surface vessel motion measurement and control
Signal and data processing

EDUCATION:
Master of Applied Science (Applied Physics), Curtin University of Technology (Western Australia), 1988.
Bachelor of Applied Science (Applied Physics), with distinction, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Victoria), May 1979.

EXPERIENCE RECORD:
Work history with dates of assignments starting with most recent:

 1999 to date
Project management for development of autonomous underwater acoustic noise recorder.

 1998 to 2001
Numerical modelling of acoustic backscatter from Antarctic krill.

 1997 to 1999
Investigation of the characteristics of air-gun sound sources and application to acoustic propagation studies.

1997 to 1998
Project management, acoustic design, electronic design, and software development for upgrade to high precision acoustic surveying system (HPASS) for use by maritime archaeologists. System was originally developed by A Duncan in period 1984 to 1987.

 1995 to 1999
Project management, electronic design, software development for the development of an experimental Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle.

 1993 to 1998
Electronic design, acoustic design, construction and software development for four upward looking ice thickness measurement sonars built for the Antarctic Division of the Australian Department of Science

 1993 to 1995
Electronic design, software development, sea trials, commissioning for development of a motion reduction system for high speed ferries

 1991 to 1993
Computer simulation and software development for an automatic station keeping system for a remotely operated underwater vehicle

 1987 to 1991
Acoustic design, electronic design and software development for an acoustic diver navigation system

 1984 to 1987
Acoustic design, electronic design and software development for a  precision acoustic surveying system for martime archaeology

OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS:
1980 to 1984
University of Bath, UK
Design and development of hardware and software for a bathymetric sidescan sonar, trials of the resulting system and extensive analysis and evaluation of the results obtained

LANGUAGES AND DEGREE OF PROFICIENCY:
English: reading, writing and spoken - excellent