Visiting Fellows
Associate Professor Yannick Sieffert
Associate Professor Yannick Sieffert research focuses on modelling of the processes of deformation in geomaterial when the constitutive eqnarrays involving softening, namely the localization. More specially, he develops the second gradient model for study the localization problems in the finite element code Lagamine with the coupling effect of thermo-hydo-mechanical. He study also the aspects of loss uniquiness of the numerical solution for a initial boundary-value problem. Yannick received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from INSA of Lyon (in France) for his dissertation on Effects of the diaphragm at midspan on static and dynamic behaviour of composite railway bridge
in 2004. Since he joined the laboratory 3SR in Grenoble University (in France) as an Associate Professor.
Associate Professor Yannick Sieffert is collaborating with Senior Lecturer Olivier Buzzi to study the localization in unsaturated geomaterials and will be based at the University of Newcastle until December 2012.
Phone: +61 2 492 15401 Send Mail
Assistant Professor Koichi Isobe
Assistant Professor Koichi Isobe received his doctoral degree in Geotechnical Engineering from Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering, Japan in 2007. He joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan as an assistant professor (2007-2012). His main research interests are large deformation simulation of geotechnical structures, constitutive modelling of saturated and unsaturated soils and foundation engineering such as Interaction between soils and foundations.
Assistant Professor Isobe is collaborating with Professor Daichao Sheng on large deformation simulation based on particle methods and will be based at the University of Newcastle until March 2013.
Phone: +61 2 492 12042 Send Mail
Associate Professor Mario Vicente Da Silva
Associate Professor Mario Vicente Da Sliva's research focuses on computational mechanics, namely computational plasticity - numerical implementation of the limit analysis theorems, the use of parallel processing for large scale computations, development of hybrid-mixed finite element models using non nodal Lagrange polynomials as approximation functions and the use of continuum damage mechanics to model the physically non-linear behavior of concrete structures. Mario received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from (UNL) University Nova of Lisbon for his dissertation on "Tridimensional numerical implementation of the kinematic theorem of limit analysis" and also holds MSc degree in Structural Engineering from IST - Technical University of Lisbon. He briefly worked as a structural design engineer before joining the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of UNL, first as a Teaching Assistant (2002-2009) and later on as an Assistant Professor.
Associate Professor Vicente Da Silva is collaborating with Associate Professor Kristian Krabbenhoft and Associate Professor Andrei Lyamin on various research projects and will be based at the University of Newcastle until September 2012.
Phone: +61 2 492 18832 Send Mail
Professor Vaughan Griffiths
Professor Griffiths completed his Masters degree at UC Berkeley and Doctoral degrees at the University of Manchester, U.K. He is currently Professor of Civil Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines where his primary research interests lie in application of finite element and risk assessment methodologies to a broad range of geotechnical engineering topics. He was previously on the Civil Engineering faculty at the University of Manchester, UK and has held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of Sydney and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has written over 200 research papers and is the co-author of three textbooks, "Programming the Finite Element Method", 4th edition, Wiley (2004), "Numerical Methods for Engineers", 2nd edition, Chapman & Hall/CRC (2006) and "Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Engineering" Wiley (2008). He gives regular short-courses for ASCE Continuing Education on "Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Engineering" and "Finite Elements in Geotechnical Engineering". He is on the Board of Direction of the ASCE and currently serves as an Editor of the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. Professor Griffiths is a licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado and a Chartered Engineer in the U.K.
Professor Vaughan Griffiths is a Partner Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering. During his six month stay in Newcastle, Professor Griffiths will be collaborating with several members in the Centre of Excellence including Laureate Professor Scott Sloan and Dr Jinsong Huang.
Phone: +61 2 492 15745 Send Mail
Professor Jinchun Chai
Professor Chai is currently Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saga University, Japan. His primary research interests are: (1) soft ground improvement; (2) geosynthetics; and (3) numerical analysis in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. He has written over 140 research papers (60 journal papers and over 80 conference papers) and two coauthored books, Improvement techniques of soft ground in subsiding and lowland environment
, Balkema (1994); and Deformation analysis in soft ground improvement, Springer (2011). Professor Chai is a licensed Professional Engineer in Japan.
During his two month stay at the University of Newcastle, Professor Chai will be collaborating with Professor John Carter and Professor Daichao Sheng on the topics of vacuum consolidation and numerical simulation of piezocone penetration/dissipation test.
Phone: +61 2 492 18832 Send Mail
Assistant Professor Konstantinos Georgiadis
Assistant Professor Konstantinos Georgiadis received his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Imperial College London, UK in 2003. He joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece as a lecturer (2005-2010) and since as an assistant professor. His main research interests are numerical and analytical modelling of geotechnical structures, applications of plasticity theory to geotechnical analysis, foundation engineering and constitutive modelling of saturated and unsaturated soils.
Assistant Professor Georgiadis is visiting the Centre of Geotechnical and Materials Modelling for a period of six months and will be collaborating with Laureate Professor Scott Sloan on semi-analytical and numerical limit analysis of deep foundations.
Phone: +61 2 492 12074 Send Mail