Rate My Professor Graeme Murch

Emeritus Professor Graeme Murch holds the position of Emeritus Professor in the School of Engineering, with a focus on Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Newcastle. He was appointed Emeritus Professor on 13 April 2021. Previously, he occupied a Personal Chair in Materials Engineering since 1995. Murch joined the University of Newcastle in 1980 as a Lecturer in Metallurgy. He has served as Director of the Diffusion in Solids Group since 1980 and as Centre Director of the Centre for Mass and Thermal Transport in Engineering Materials since 2011. Before returning to Australia, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory in the United States following AINSE postgraduate studentship (1970-1973) and research fellowship (1973-1975), becoming the first to hold both awards consecutively. His academic contributions include extensive editorial roles, serving as Editor-in-Chief of Defect and Diffusion Forum and Diffusion Foundations for many years, commencing recognition in 2013.

Murch's research centers on computational modeling of mass and thermal transport phenomena in engineering materials, particularly using Monte Carlo simulations, molecular dynamics, and analytical methods to investigate diffusion processes, tracer and chemical diffusion coefficients, thermotransport, interdiffusion in high-entropy alloys, ionic conductivity, and mechanical properties of advanced metallic foams. He has authored or co-authored over 550 publications, accumulating more than 8,500 citations. Key publications include 'Diffusion Correlation Effects in Nonstoichiometric Solids' (Philosophical Magazine, 1973, with H.J. DeBruin), 'A Monte Carlo Analysis of Diffusion and Thermodynamics in UO2+x' (Philosophical Magazine, 1975), 'History and People of Solid-State Diffusion – An Overview' (Defect and Diffusion Forum, 2021), and recent works such as 'The impact of non-equilibrium vacancies on mobilities and Kirkendall porosity formation in diffusion couples' (2025) and 'Novel General Solution for the Analysis of a Multicomponent Interdiffusion Couple' (2022). His research has attracted substantial funding, including ARC Discovery Projects of $309,000 for mass transport in high-entropy alloys and $325,000 with collaborators Professor Irina Belova, Professor Andreas Meyer, and Professor Zi-Kui Liu. Murch has delivered keynote lectures at international conferences on diffusion in solids and liquids and co-chaired events, significantly influencing the field of solid-state diffusion modeling.