Christopher James

Christopher James is a UQ Amplify Senior Lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland, where he is affiliated with the Centre for Hypersonics. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland in 2012 and completed his PhD in Engineering there in 2018, focusing on radiation from simulated atmospheric entry into the gas giants. His doctoral work included a cotutelle program with École Centrale Paris, supported by a French government Eiffel Excellence Scholarship, during which he developed radiating simulations to complement his experimental research. Post-PhD, James served as a researcher in the Centre for Hypersonics, contributing to the development of the X3R reflected shock tunnel and advancing experiments in the X2 expansion tube. In 2020, he transitioned to a lecturing role and now holds the UQ Amplify Senior Lecturer position. He lectures on hypersonics and space engineering, covering high-temperature gas dynamics, hypersonic test facilities, rarefied gas dynamics, orbital mechanics, rocket trajectories, spacecraft design, thermal and power management, and planetary entry.

James's research centers on experimental hypersonics, hypersonic aerothermodynamics, and planetary entry, encompassing the design, improvement, and simulation of high-enthalpy facilities such as expansion tubes and shock tunnels; application of physical, optical, and radio-based diagnostic techniques; non-equilibrium radiation measurements for planetary entries; re-entry observations; and impulse facility ablation testing. He participated in the 2020 UniSQ-led observation of JAXA's Hayabusa2 re-entry and led the UQ team for NASA's OSIRIS-REx re-entry observation in 2022. His contributions include developing widely used expansion tube simulation and analysis codes. James has received the UQ EAIT Faculty Early Career Researcher Award (2020), the AIAA Ground Test Best Paper Award (2021), an ARC DECRA Fellowship (2021-2023) for Mars return conditions, and is co-recipient of an ARC Discovery Project (2023-2026) on giant planet entry. He has published 28 journal papers, 2 technical notes, and 59 conference papers, including 'Emission spectroscopy and surface temperature analysis from Hayabusa2 sample return observation' (Acta Astronautica, 2025), 'Large-scale free-piston-driven multi-mode shock expansion tunnel' (Experiments in Fluids, 2024), 'An intensified ultra-high-speed optical emission spectroscopy system for hypersonic impulse test facilities' (Experiments in Fluids, 2025), and 'Electron number density measurements in a Saturn entry condition' (AIAA Journal, 2022).

Professional Email: c.james4@uq.edu.au