Dilan Robert

Associate Professor Dilan Robert is the Head of the Department of Civil & Infrastructure Engineering at RMIT University. As a leading expert in geotechnical engineering, he is dedicated to delivering research outcomes that can be effectively implemented in practice. With over 20 years of experience in geotechnical and underground infrastructure projects, he holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Before joining RMIT in 2014, he worked as a Geotechnical Engineer in the UK for two years and as a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia, for another two years.

His research focuses on pipelines, road pavements, soil stabilization, waste recycling, soil–structure interaction analysis, offshore geotechnics, unsaturated soils, constitutive modeling of soil and concrete, and corrosion assessment of buried metals. He serves as the Director of Research and Education at the Centre for Pavement Excellence Asia Pacific Ltd and is a Fellow of the Australia–India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF). He is a Chief Investigator of multiple ongoing state, national, and industry projects worth over $10 million. Since 2011, he has published more than 200 technical papers across his diverse research areas.

Industry Experience:
Prior to his academic positions in Australia, Dilan worked overseas as a practising engineer, obtaining 4 years of industry experience across a number of infrastructure projects as briefed below.

• Geotechnical Engineer, KW Ltd, London, UK (2010–2012)
At KW Ltd, Dilan worked as a subsea geotechnical engineer on various offshore pipeline projects where he was responsible for upheaval buckling analysis, reliability analysis, shore approach, slope stability, trenchability, expansion, pile design, backfilling assessments, settlement calculations and geotechnical data review.

• Civil Engineer, State Engineering Corporation (SEC), Sri Lanka (2005–2006)
At SEC, Dilan experienced all aspects of casting pre-stressed and precast concrete structures, such as bridge beams, electricity transition poles, hume pipes, hollow blocks, building components and other precast reinforced concrete structures. Further, he managed more than 150 direct labourers at the construction site and worked in coordination with the subordinate staff.

• Research Engineer, Lanka Hydraulic Institute (LHI), Sri Lanka (2004–2005)
Dilan worked as a mathematical modeller at LHI for the construction of fishing harbours and ports.