NEWS 2015

Posted March 27, 2015 (Updated May 14, 2015)

Event: May 20, 2015

GSE: Dr. Bolton, Cambridge University (Retired) and Dr. Vardanega, University of Bristol - A Fresh Perspective on Soil Mechanics With Applications to Geotechnical Design

Location: Saskatchewan Room, Faculty Club, University of Alberta (11435 Saskatchewan Drive)

Time: 11:30am Registration, 12:00pm Lunch, 12:30pm Presentation

Cost: $10 Members, $10 Non-members, $5 Students

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Professor Malcolm Bolton, FREng, graduated from Cambridge University in 1967 and took an MSc in structural engineering from Manchester University. From 1969 he helped Andrew Schofield to set up the UK’s first geotechnical centrifuge facility in Manchester, continuing there as a lecturer and publishing his textbook “A Guide to Soil Mechanics” in 1979. He returned to Cambridge in 1980, where he was awarded a PhD in soil mechanics, and later became Professor of Soil Mechanics. He was the Director of the Schofield Centre from 1995 until he retired in 2013. He has published over 230 papers, working with 45 doctoral candidates, 15 of whom have studied fundamental soil mechanics, with 30 using physical models to investigate a great variety of geotechnical applications. Professor Bolton helped to draft BS8002 Earth Retaining Structures, served on the Hong Kong Slope Stability Technical Review Board, and frequently offers advice on soil-pipeline interaction. He holds various awards from the UK Institutions of Civil Engineers and Structural Engineers, and the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He gave the 2012 Rankine Lecture “Performance-based design in geotechnical engineering”.

Paul Vardanega, PhD, is a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the University of Bristol. He studied at the Queensland University of Technology where he graduated with his BE in 2007, followed by his MEngSc in 2008. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Malcolm Bolton. From 2012 to 2013, he worked as a Research Associate in the Lang O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology at the University of Cambridge on the project: “Best practice guide for structural monitoring over the whole life of assets”. He took up his present appointment at Bristol in September 2013. He is a member of the Institution of Engineers Australia and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He currently serves on the editorial advisory panels of Proceedings of the ICE - Geotechnical Engineering and Geotechnique. He has authored (or co-authored) 19 papers in peer reviewed journals on a variety of topics in geotechnical engineering and structural health monitoring. He has continuing research interests in monitoring of civil infrastructure, geotechnical codes of practice and infrastructure decision-making.