Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/06/2024
6:30 pm
Categories
CSA – Ceylon Society of Australia – Meeting on 2 June at 6.30 pm: Speaker Distinguished Professor Buddhima Indraratna
The next General Meeting of the Ceylon Society of Australia for 2024 will take place on Sunday 2 June commencing at 6.30 pm at the Main Hall of the Pennant Hills Community Centre on Level 1, Ramsay Road, Pennant Hills, NSW 2120. Ramsay Road is off Yarrara Road and the Community Centre is opposite the Pennant Hills Railway Station. The entrance to the building is from the car park at the rear of the building.
The CSA Committee warmly welcomes Members and Guests to the meeting. A donation to defray catering expenses for the Social following on from the talk would be appreciated. Bringing a plate of food would also be welcomed.
The CSA is privileged to present as speaker:
Distinguished Professor Buddhima Indraratna, AM,
who will talk on the subject of “Challenges and Advances in Transportation Infrastructure”.
Distinguished Professor Buddhima Indraratna, AM
- 2024 Australia Day Honours List, Member of the Order of Australia
- 2024 5th in the World in the Lifetime Geotechnical Engineering Ranking by GPSScholar
- 2024 International Civil Engineer Award by the Jose Ibarra Foundation, Madrid, globally awarded every four years.
Affiliations:
Currently, Buddhima Indraratna is a Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and the Director of Transport Research Centre, at University of Technology, Sydney. Formerly, he was a Distinguished Professor and the Founding Director of Australian Research Council’s Training Centre for Rail Infrastructure (ARC ITTC-Rail) at the University of Wollongong.
He is also an Honorary Distinguished Professor at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, Indian Institute of Technology in Assam, India, and Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China.
Education:
Buddhima is a Civil Engineering graduate from Imperial College, London, with his PhD from the University of Alberta in Canada in 1987.
Professional Fellowships:
Buddhima is a Fellow of the prestigious Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia (FIEAust), Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE), Fellow of Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM), and a Fellow of the Geological Society of UK (FGS).
He is a Chartered Professional Engineer of Australia, UK, and Sri Lanka.
Recognitions and Honours:
Buddhima’s contributions to geotechnical and railway engineering have been acknowledged through many national and international awards.
This year on Australia Day 26th January, Buddhima received the honour of Member of the Order of Australia. The Australian Geomechanics Society bestowed its highest honour of Life Membership in 2023.
This year also, Buddhima has had the signal honour of being chosen worldwide for the highly prestigious 2024 International Civil Engineer Award by the Jose Ibarra Foundation in Madrid, Spain, to be bestowed by the Queen of Spain in May. He has just been informed by GPSScholar (US organisation) that he is assessed as 5th in the world in the Lifetime Geotechnical Ranking index due to his very high output of research and publications. In October 2023, Buddhima received the prestigious Sir Visveswaraya Prize for the most outstanding contribution to Civil Engineering outside the UK from the Institution of Civil Engineers, London.
His other significant awards include the 1st Ralph Proctor and 4th Louis Menard Lecture Awards from the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. He also delivered the 2009 EH Davis Memorial Lecture of the Australian Geomechanics Society for contributions to Theory and Practice of Geomechanics and the 2022 Stephen Marich lecture on Advances in Railroad Engineering.
For his pioneering contributions, he was honoured with the 2009 Business and Higher Education award by the Australian Commonwealth, 2011 Engineers Australia Transport Medal and 2015 Australia-New Zealand Railway Technical Society’s Outstanding Individual Award.
Other international awards include Thomas Telford Premium by the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), twice the recipient of Robert Quigley Commendation Award by the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the Medal of Excellence for life-time contributions by the International Association of Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics.
For his contributions to Sri Lanka as an UN expert, including landslides mitigation and post-tsunami rehabilitation works, Buddhima received the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Commendation via the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the B.D. Rampala Memorial Lecture, awarded by the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka.
Research Leadership, Publications and Supervision:
Buddhima has been a consultant to various infrastructure organisations worldwide, and a former United Nations expert representing Australia. He currently leads numerous projects worth over $1.5 million per year. He has published over 1000 papers, including 14 books, over 500 journal papers, and done more than 75 invited Keynote papers in all continents.
He is the Chair of the Ground Improvement Advisory Board of the Institute of Civil Engineers, UK, and the Chief Editor of the Journal of Ground Improvement.
Talk – “Challenges and Advances in Transportation Infrastructure with special reference to Railways”.
Professor Indraratna will talk on the challenges, commitments and developments for advances in Transport infrastructure in a non technical treatment of the subject. The perspectives of a Circular Economy will be dealt with, and the drive to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the field of transport through research and technology. SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – is of relevance as we strive for a better world of the future.
The talk will draw upon Professor Indraratna’s internationally recognised leadership in the forefront of research, particularly in the area of rail networks of the future.
Presenji Jayawickrema
Hony. Secretary, CSA
23rd April 2024
