Associate Professor John Williams
Teaching
Bioengineering
Biography
Assoc. Professor Williams commenced working life as an apprentice aircraft mechanic at the Commonwealth Aircraft Factories in Melbourne, Australia in 1956. He relinquished his apprenticeship to study Mechanical Engineering full-time at the (then) Swinburne Technical College. He furthered his education at The University of Melbourne, gaining an upper Second Class Honours Degree in Engineering. He subsequently gained employment with a firm of Consulting Engineers, Roderick Ross and Associates, and was responsible for the design of large air-to-air heat pump air conditioning systems installed in several city buildings both here and in Canberra. After two years, he rejoined the University as a candidate for a MEngSc, investigating fracture mechanisms in the human femur. Following successful completion of this, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, whereupon he travelled to the USA to study for a PhD in Engineering with a major in Bioengineering.
Research interests
While Assoc. Professor Williams' principal interests are in stress analysis, fatigue and fracture, a growing interest in biomedical engineering has steered his research activities in this direction. In the years following his postgraduate studies in bioengineering and physiology in the USA, Assoc. Professor Williams has been a major contributor to the development of biomechanical research at The University of Melbourne. He has maintained a constant dialogue with local biomedical research groups and orthopaedic surgeons. His major research interests are in the areas of skeletal biomechanics, bone growth and fracture, soft tissue mechanics and the structural integrity of orthopaedic implants.