BGA 21st Annual Conference, AGM and drinks reception

Dr Andrew Ridley

Dr Andrew Ridley is Chair of the British Geotechnical Association and managing director of Geotechnical Observations Limited which he founded in 2000.

With over 40 years’ experience within the geotechnical sector of the civil engineering industry, he is known for his work on the measurement of soil suction (in situ and laboratory) for which he received a PhD from Imperial College London.

Andrew is currently the UK's representative on ISO TC182 WG2, which is writing international standards for geotechnical monitoring, a member of the British National Committee for standards in geotechnics B_526_3, Chair of ISSMGE TC220 Field Monitoring in Geomechanics and was Chair of the local organising committee for the 11th International Symposium on Field Monitoring in Geomechanics held at Imperial College London in September 2022.

In addition, Andrew was a member of the Steering Committee for CIRIA 550 Infrastructure Embankments – Condition Appraisal and Remedial Treatment, on the Editorial Panel of Geotechnical Engineering (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers) from 1998 to 2001 and was a member of the sub-committee to the Advisory Panel of Géotechnique for the 2011 Symposium in Print on Partial Saturation in Compacted Soils.

Palak Shukla

Palak Shukla is the co-chair of the BGA's Early Careers Group and is a design engineer at Ramboll. Prior to this, she completed a PhD at University College London. She has been involved in the BGA ECG since 2020.

Dr Stephen Thomas

Stephen Thomas is the founder and eirector of OGI Groundwater Specialists Ltd.

Starting his civil engineering career in 1976, he has completed over 300 geotechnical, water and groundwater projects over 36 years working in the construction, water, and environmental industries. Supported by 10 years of university education in Swansea, Durham, and Oxford, Stephen delights in developing innovative solutions to overcome major engineering challenges.

After three years working in the United States, then six years at Oxford University, Stephen founded OGI in 1989 to provide specialist services in the field of groundwater engineering and management. 

His projects have been delivered predominantly in the UK to the infrastructure industry, but he has also worked on many international projects, including his favourite of working for the Native American Navajo Tribe in New Mexico, defending their holy River Jemez from over-abstraction of groundwater by industry.

Alister Smith

Alister is a Chartered Civil Engineer and currently reader in Geotechnics at Loughborough University, where he is director of Research Impact, programme leader for civil engineering, and director of the National Engineered Slope Simulator (NESS) research facility. He pioneered the ‘Listening to Infrastructure’ research programme to develop innovations in geotechnical monitoring. He was an EPSRC Fellow and has received awards including the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Engineering, Hawley Award for Engineering Innovation, and the ICE Telford Premium.

Dr Andrew Bond

Andrew was chairman of CEN TC250/SC7 (the Eurocode 7 committee) from 2010 to 2019, during which time he led the development of the second-generation Eurocode 7. He was a member of the team that rewrote EN 1990 Basis of structural and geotechnical design member and directed the (six) teams that transformed Eurocode 7 from two to three parts: general rules, ground properties, and geotechnical structures.

In 2023, Andrew took over as chair of B/526, the BSI committee that looks after British Standards for geotechnics. He is leading the work preparing National Annexes for the second-generation Eurocode 7 and planning amendments and revisions to British Standards that will be affected by the new code.
Andrew is currently working on an update to the highly successful book Decoding Eurocode 7, published in 2008 to support the first-generation Eurocodes.

Dr Andy Moores

Dr Andy Moores is executive director of research at CIRIA. CIRIA is a member-based organisation that produces good practice guidance, training and events to share knowledge. CIRIA have long championed the use of nature based solutions through work on SUDS, Blue-Green Infrastructure and through the Natural Flood Management Manual released last year. Prior to joining CIRIA in 2021, Andy led the FCERM research programme for the Environment Agency which helped to champion working with natural processes in the broadest sense. Andy serves on a range of CIWEM, ICE and research advisory boards.

Dr Anastasios Stavrou

Dr Anastasios Stavrou holds a PhD from the University of Leeds and is rock mechanics engineer with extensive experience in shaping and leading rock engineering designs for major Infrastructure, mining and GeoEnergy storage projects, including large caverns, deep shafts and mining roadways to depths greater than 2km in complex ground conditions. 

Dr Mark Cottrell

Dr Mark Cottrell is the technical director for WSP UK Limited. He is an experienced multi-disciplined sub-surface professional who regularly provides technical and commercial expertise in the Energy (oil & gas, deep geothermal, and CCS), infrastructure (tunnels/caverns/dams/slopes), nuclear Waste (GDF, site characterisation, performance assessment/safety, and deposition tunnel/pit engineering), and mining (surface and underground stability) industries.  

He is also the global technical director of the Geoscience & FracMan group in WSP, with a proven focus on using technology to support subsurface characterisation, flow and geomechanics in engineering design, and risk minimisation

Prof Davide Elmo

BEng Engineering Geology and Geotechnics. PhD Geomechanics. Professional Engineer in B.C. (PEng)

Davide's research topics include discrete fracture network modelling, advanced numerical modelling of block cave mining, mechanical behaviour of hard rock pillars, slope stability analysis, and applications of synthetic rock mass modelling. He is also researching in the field of Engineering Philosophy, and applications of cognitive biases play in rock engineering design and machine learning.

Dr Ioannis Vazaios

Yannis is a principal engineer based in the Arup London office, specialising in the fields of geotechnics, rock mechanics, engineering geology, tunnelling, rock slope stability and rock foundations.

His areas of experience span across a variety of civil and mining engineering projects that involve surface and underground excavations ranging from soft ground to hard rock environments, slope stability and foundations in rock formations, with a focus on the use of numerical tools, computer programming and state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques for geotechnical engineering purposes. 

Currently he is involved in shallow and deep underground infrastructure projects in the UK, Americas and Australasia regions.

David Ingram

David has provided geological and geotechnical interpretation for large scale tunnelling projects, site development, mining, energy, and infrastructure initiatives across Hong Kong, the Middle East, West Africa, and the UK. He has extensive site experience that enables him to bring a strong practical understanding of complex geological and geotechnical issues and how these can be overcome in the built environment. He has a keen interest in the onshore renewable energy space and the challenges around nascent green hydrogen initiatives.

Established as a specialist engineering geologist, his roles on projects have evolved to project management and multi-discipline design co-ordination. Working in a managerial capacity across his clients, David is dedicated to helping deliver projects on time and on budget. 

Tomas Bym

Tomas Bym is a lead geotechnical engineer at WSP Sweden with more than 13 years of experience from multiple international projects in infrastructure, mining, oil&gas and nuclear fields. He specialises in numerical modelling of complex projects involving geotechnics, soil and rock mechanics and hydrology. Tomas is an expert in DFN modelling and is involved in the development of new methods and functionality in DFN modelling code FracMan.