Imperial’s Professor Richard Jardine to deliver 6th McClelland Lecture

Richard Jardine, Professor of Geomechanics in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial, is to give the ISSMGE’s 6th McClelland Lecture.

Professor Jardine, who is also a College Proconsul, was chosen by an international panel of his peers to give the prestigious lecture in recognition of his contribution to the field of offshore geotechnics, which has been the focus of his career since the early 1980s. 

Held in honour of the late Thomas Bramlette ‘Bram’ McClelland, a pioneer of offshore geotechnical engineering, the lecture is organised by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), the world’s leading professional body for geotechnical engineers.

It is an honour to be invited to give the 6th McClelland Lecture and it is particularly special for me as it will be taking place during the OSIG Conference which we are delighted to be able to bring to Imperial this year. Professor Richard Jardine Proconsul and Professor of Geomechanics

This year’s lecture will take place at Imperial College London during the Society for Underwater Technology’s 9^th International Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics (OSIG) Conference, Innovative Geotechnologies for Energy Transition, in September.

Held every five years, the conference is expected to attract over 500 specialists in all aspects of marine geotechnology to discuss developments in offshore site investigation and geotechnics and the implications of the energy transition on the sector. 

“It is an honour to be invited to give the 6th McClelland Lecture and it is particularly special for me as it will be taking place during the OSIG Conference which we are delighted to be able to bring to Imperial this year,” said Professor Jardine.

Breaking new ground

Considered among the world’s leading experts in the field of offshore geotechnical engineering, Professor Jardine is well known for the development of the Imperial College Pile (ICP) approach, a design method which has significantly reduced the cost and complexity of challenging offshore energy projects, his contributions to the recent PISA project that has re-defined the design of monopiles for offshore wind-farms and the recent ALPACA and PAGE joint industry programmes into offshore foundation design for chalk and sand sites.

In addition to his work on foundations for offshore structures, he currently leads research into the advanced laboratory characterisation of natural geomaterials under monotonic and cyclic loading and has conducted major investigations into the analysis of underwater landslides and the impact of climate change on infrastructure in cold regions.

His McClelland Lecture will focus on recent advances in understanding the ageing behaviour of offshore foundations, delving into the analysis of field and laboratory experiments at clay, sand and chalk sites. 

This is a subject area which owes much to the influence of Bram McClelland, who carried out the first site investigations for offshore foundations in the 1940s and made a sizeable contribution to the development of offshore geotechnical engineering over a career spanning almost five decades.

The SUT 9^th OSIG Conference, Innovative Geotechnologies for Energy Transition, will take place from 12-14 September 2023 at Imperial College London. Registration is now open. 

The McClelland Lecture will take place on 12 September in the Great Hall, assembling at 17.30 for an 18.00 start, and will be open to all.