Rate My Professor Mark Brown

Professor Mark Brown serves as Professor of Forestry Operations and Director of the Forest Research Institute at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where he also directs the Australian Forest and Wood Innovations Centre for Sustainable Futures and previously led the Forest Industries Research Centre. He holds a Master of Engineering (MEng) from Université du Québec and a Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering (BScFE) from the University of New Brunswick. Having grown up in the forest industry through his family sawmill, Brown started his professional career as a researcher at the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC), concentrating on forest transportation efficiency and road maintenance management. He progressed to lead the transportation group at FERIC. In September 2007, he moved to Australia as program leader for CRC Forestry, managing the harvesting and operations program while fostering industry engagement and collaborative research networks.

Upon joining the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2012, Brown played a pivotal role in establishing the Australian Forest Operations Research Alliance (AFORA) and the Forest Industries Research Centre (now integrated into the Forest Research Institute). His research specializations encompass forest transport efficiency, forest supply chain management and optimisation, and biomass supply chain efficiency, with an emphasis on driving innovation from applied research. He has secured funding for projects such as the Australian Industrial Plantation Herbicide Management Consortium (2018-2022), Export log and wood chip supply chain management (2017-2019), Log drying for efficient supply chains (2014-2015), and Australian Forest Operations Research Alliance (2012-2015). Prominent publications include "An international review of the most productive and cost effective forest biomass recovery technologies and supply chains" (2017), "Methods to manage and optimize forest biomass supply chains: A review" (2019), "Analysing the effect of five operational factors on forest residue supply chain costs: A case study in Western Australia" (2013), and "Fifteen essential science advances needed for effective restoration of the world's forest landscapes" (2023). Brown serves on the editorial panel of the International Journal of Forest Engineering and the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Forestry. He holds leadership positions including Chair of the IEA Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme, Australian Executive member of IEA Bioenergy, national task leader for Task 43 on biomass supply, and member of Standards Australia’s ISO technical committee 248 on sustainability standards for bioenergy. He teaches Forest Operations Management.