Dilan Robert

Associate Professor Dilan Robert is the Head of Department in Civil & Infrastructure Engineering at RMIT. He is an expert in geotechnical engineering and is passionate about delivering implementable research outcomes in practice. He has over 20 years’ experience in geotechnical and underground infrastructure projects. He obtained his first degree from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Prior to his role at RMIT (since 2014), he worked for 2 years as a Geotechnical Engineer in the UK and for 2 years as a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia.

His research areas include pipelines, road pavements, soil stabilization, waste recycling, soil–structure interaction analysis, offshore geotechnics, unsaturated soils, constitutive modelling of soil and concrete, and corrosion assessment of buried metals. He is the Director of Research and Education at the Centre for Pavement Excellence Asia Pacific Ltd and Fellow of Australia–India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF). Dilan is a Chief Investigator for many ongoing state/national/industry projects with value over $5 million. He has published over 200 technical papers since 2011 across his wide research areas and interests.

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.