Staff

The Staff

Professor Peter Dowd, has more than 30 years experience in academic research, teaching and administration and in consulting to industry. His research interests include geostatistical modelling and prediction in mineral resource, petroleum reservoir and environmental applications; geological modelling and mathematical geology; stochastic modelling and quantified risk assessment in natural resource and environmental applications; definitions and reporting of ore reserves; mineral economics; financial analysis and modelling; operational research; and computer-aided mine design. The context of much of this work has been the modelling and estimation of orebodies, coal deposits and hydrocarbon reservoirs, often in very complex geological settings; the generation of three-dimensional orebody models as the basis for optimal mine design and scheduling; establishing resources and reserves together with associated confidence limits; the design of blasting and loading operations to optimise mineral extraction; and the quantification of geological and technical risk associated with resource extraction.

Dr Chaoshui Xu, worked in the UK for University of Leeds and Structure Vision Ltd before he moved to Adelaide in March 2007. Dr Xu has extensive research experience covering many areas in mining and environmental engineering including geostatistics, mineral resource evaluation, risk assessment of mining project, optimal mine design, rock fracture mechanics, stochastic rock fracture modelling, particle flow simulation using distinct element method and statistical analysis of porous or fractured media.

Dr Ki-Bok Min, BSc (SNU), MSc (SNU), Tekn Lic (KTH), PhD (KTH), MAusIMM, has expertise in the fields of rock mechanics and fractured rock hydrogeology applied in mining, geological, civil and petroleum engineering. He has extensive experience of research and consulting for the underground repository of nuclear waste in Europe and the US. He has over 25 technical publications and notable contribution includes the effect of stress on the fluid flow of fractured rock and determination of complete compliance tensor of fractured rock.

Professor Stephen Priest Since completing his PhD in Engineering Rock Mechanics at the University of Durham in 1975, Professor Priest has accumulated over 30 years of teaching and research experience in Europe, Australia and the USA. Over this period he has contributed to undergraduate and postgraduate programs in rock mechanics, mining engineering, civil engineering and engineering geology at Imperial College London, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia. He has also held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Missouri Rolla. His main research interests include: measurement and characterisation of rock structure for rock engineering; application of rock mechanics principles to the analysis and design of underground and surface excavations in rock; application of three-dimensional yield criteria to the analysis of rock mass strength; design and implementation of rock reinforcement and instrumentation systems; design and interpretation of on-site and laboratory rock testing programs; analysis of fluid flow through fractured rock masses; mineral economics and financial analysis for the minerals industry. He has written two sole-author text books focusing on the applications of rock engineering, his most significant being a 500 page monograph entitled 'Discontinuity Analysis for Rock Engineering' which was published by Chapman & Hall in early 1993.