Mark grew up in the forest industry and from the family sawmill went on to get his Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering from the University of New Brunswick and become a researcher with the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC).
His research focused on forest transportation efficiency and road maintenance management.
Through this time as a researcher at FERIC, Mark obtained a Masters in Engineering from the Université du Québec. After six years as a researcher Mark took on the leadership of the transportation group at FERIC.
In September 2007, Mark left FERIC to take a program leader role with CRC forestry in Australia providing research and solutions in forest operations for the Australian forest industry.
Through CRC Forestry Mark worked on building an extended collaborative research network and, in addition to managing the harvesting and operations program, was responsible for managing broader industry engagement for the CRC for Forestry.
In 2012 Mark moved to the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) where he has had a key role in the establishment of the Australian Forest Operations Research Alliance (AFORA) (2012) and the Forest Industries Research Centre (FIRC) (2013) at UniSC.
As with Mark's past applied forestry research both AFORA and FIRC were established and are being grown around strong collaboration with industry through national and international networks.
Professional Memberships
- IEA Bioenergy – Australian Executive member
- IEA Bioenergy – Task 43 – biomass supply, national task leader
- IEA Bioenergy – Communications committee member
- International Journal of Forest Engineering – editorial panel member
- Australian Journal of Forestry – editorial board member
- Institute of Foresters Australia – member and RPF
- Forest Products Society – member
- Standards Australia. ISO technical committee 248 sustainability standard for bioenergy – member
- FP7 INFRES project on mobilizing bioenergy supply chains in Europe – technical adviser
Research Grants
| Project name | Investigators | Funding body | Year(s) | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Australian Industrial Plantation Herbicide Management Consordium |
Mark Brown |
Forest and Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA) |
2018 - 2022 |
Improved management and application of weed control |
|
Export log and wood chip supply chain management |
M Brown, M Acuna, M Ghaffariyan, M Strandgard, R Mitchell |
Forest and Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA) |
2017-2019 |
Improved management of volume and quality in export supply chains |
|
Log drying for efficient supply chains |
M Brown, M Acuna, M Ghaffariyan, M Strandgard, R Mitchell |
Forest and Wood Products Australia Limited (FWPA) & |
2014–2015
|
Establishing drying curves/regimes to reduce costs and improve value in forest supply chains |
|
Australian Forest Operations Research Alliance (AFORA) |
M Brown, M Acuna, M Ghaffariyan, M Strandgard, R Mitchell |
Australian forest industry |
2012–2015 |
Forest supply chains |
Potential Research Projects for HDR & Honours Students
|
optimised performance based designed trucks for forestry transportation in Australia |
|
optimised logistic planning and management for forestry transportation |
|
affecting change with contractors while maintaining an independent business relationship |
|
promoting the acceptance and adoption of new technology and work methods within the forestry workforce |
|
quantify the impact of alternative harvesting systems on the production capacity, cost and effectiveness of harvest operations |
|
the phycology of technology change in the forest industry: understanding drivers and resistance to change |
|
implementation of operational tracking technology for improved resource management and machine productivity |
|
data capture and management for efficient forest supply chains |
|
alternative business models for multi-stakeholder/multi-product forest supply chains |
Research areas
- Forest transport efficiency
- Forest supply chain management and optimisation
- Biomass supply chain efficiency
- Driving innovation from applied research
Teaching areas
- Forest Operations Management
Professor Mark Brown's specialist areas of knowledge include forest transport efficiency, forest supply chain management and optimisation, biomass supply chain efficiency and driving innovation from applied research