Professor Harry Watson honoured by SAE International

Prof Harry Watson was recently honoured with the SAE International Franz Pischinger Powertrain Innovation Award presented at the 2024 WCX Congress in Detroit together with Prof Elisa Toulson and Dr William Attard, who gained PhDs under his supervision.

Prof Toulson’s PhD was on the chemistry of turbulent jet ignition, which began development at Melbourne University, Mechanical Engineering, in 1974 and was patented in 1992.

Dr Attard commercialised the technology for Mahle and it was first used by Ferrari Formula One engines in 2014 achieving a thermal efficiency in excess of 50 percent, a world record. The ignition process has been adopted in several sports car engines such as those from Maserati and Honda.

Prof Pischinger founded the FEV automotive research company, which today has thousands of employees in three regions of the world, while he was a researcher and teacher at RWTH Aachen, Germany. This plaque is presented annually by SAE International and sponsored by FEV. This was the first time it has been presented to a person outside the US or Japan.

The citation included the following: Prof Harry Watson’s vision and research at Melbourne University has made significant contributions to automotive engineering.

With a focus on the chemistry and physics of internal combustion engine processes developed in his Imperial College PhD, he produced mathematical models for HCCI engine processes.

This founded development of further computer models for engine efficiency and emissions including, in 2009, the world’s fastest engine optimizer simulation code suggesting the ultimate performance of optimized internal combustion engines by using very lean (fuel weak) mixtures ignited by TJI.

He also built class leading natural gas and hydrogen engines. His applied research included component design to avoid wear by ideal lubrication and hence long life, and he identified the pollution benefits from changing car driving patterns.

His methods have been used by several EPAs to develop test driving cycles more representative of a cross section of drivers’ experience. He has published more than 120 SAE International papers.

His consultancies ranged from Formula One and Le Mans racing car engines and F1 body design to the benefits from more stringent Australian car Design Rule CO2 standards.

He was Deputy-head or Head of Mechanical Engineering between 1984 and 2000 and president or vice-president for SAE-Australasia for 14 years.