P.N.Joubert, O.A.M. 

Emeritus Professor in Mechanical Engineering,

University of Melbourne (Current Position)

Former Position:

:Professor in Mechanical Engineering

:Personal Chair

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE.

Prior to retirement in 1989, the professor served on the committee which formulated all the Australian Design Rules, Serving on this committee from the day it was formed. Chairman  of sub – committees dealing with trucks and buses as well as occupant protection as shown below.

In “1973” the Professor wrote a review on Truck and Bus Design in Relation to Road Safety, for the Federal Department of Transport.

1.    Holds degrees of-

      .     B.E. (Aero. Eng.)  1951

      .     M.E. (Mechanical) 1965   

2.    Fellow – Institution of Engineers, Australia

       Fellow – Society of Automobile Engineers, Australia

       Associate Fellow – Royal Aeronautical Society

       Member – Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers

3.    Fellow – Australian academy of Technological Science (1979)

4.    Commenced research in motor vehicles in 1959.

5.    Studied VW and Holden of the time and was first to process the full accident reports collected by the police in Victoria.

6.    Member – Human Factors Committee of Australian Road Research board (1962-1979)

7.    Received grant from ARRB to study ‘Interactions between Vehicle – driver and the road’ in 1962, which continued until 1979. Studied how drivers steer, how the car is designed and how it reacts, how the road is designed and it’s interactions on other two features. 

8.    Foundation member – Advisory Committee on Safety in Vehicle Design which sets all safety features in new motor cars. (A committee on the Australian Transport Advisory Council which is composed of all State Ministers of Transport plus a Commonwealth Minister.)

9.    Chairman of the following sub – committees for about six years

      a)  brakes

      b)  trucks and buses

c)      occupant protection

10.   Advisor – Victorian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Road Safety. First to propose that the Committee should look at compulsary wearing of seat belts. Their first witness when they decided to look into the matter.

11.    Advisor – Commonwealth Parliamentary Standing  Committee on Road Safety.

12.    Member – Consultative Council of Road Accident Mortality which was statutory committee of Victorian Department of Health (1971-1979). Studied every road death in the State. Committee also studied reception of victims in hospitals, etc. 

13.   Receieved Commonwealth grant to study role of roadside objects in road accidents.

14.    Received Commonwealth grant to study role of tyres in accidents.

15.    Received Commonwealth grant to study role of trucks and buses in accidents.

16.    Received Commonwealth grant to develop a vomit pump (10% of road deaths due to drowning in own vomit.)

17.    Received Commonwealth grant to investigate accidents with poles in Melbourne. Had a team of researchers collecting data on these accidents for two years. Studied all details connected with just on 1,000 accidents. Consequently, am very familiar with the details of accidents.

18.    Editorial board member of Journal of Vehicle System Dynamics for about six years.

19.    Personal invitation to give papers at international conferences on vehicle             dynamics run by International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) and at international automobile engineering conferences (FISITA).

20.    Personal invitations to visit overseas motor companies -

     .   General Motors (Detroit)                 4 times

     .    Ford  (Detroit)                                  3 times

     .    Chrysler  (Detroit)                           4 times

     .    VW  (Woldsburg)                             3 times

     .    Mercedes  (Stuttgart)                       2 times

     .    Volvo  (Gothenburg)                        3 times

     .    Ford  (UK)

     .    Leyland  (UK)

21.        Personal invitations to International Seat Belt Symposia, Tokyo (1979) and Toronto (1981).

22.        Visited many overseas research institutes in USA, UK and Europe.

23.        Expert witness in vehicle accident cases, mainly in the Supreme Court of Victoria, South Australia, NSW, Tasmania, Western Australia, Northern Territory and ACT, but not in Queensland.

24.        Consultant – Victorian Police in certain vehicle accident cases.

Lecturer – Federal Police College and NSW Police on detection methods in vehicle accidents.

25.        Awarded medal in the Order of Australia for contributions to road and  offshore yachting safety.

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