About

Sam is currently a University Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, with specific expertise in Geotechnical Engineering. He teaches across Structures (Parts IA and IB) and Geotechnical Engineering (Parts IIA and IIB) within Division D. Sam is also a Fellow of the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology. Check out the Teaching page for a summary of Sam’s current and past teaching related duties.

Sam has a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering (2007) and a Doctorate in Geotechnical Engineering (2011), both awarded by the University of Sheffield. Following award of his doctorate Sam moved to the University of Western Australia to work at the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems where he worked on a wide range of geotechnical problems related to the offshore energy sector, on both oil and gas and offshore renewable energy related applications.

Current research interests revolve around the “whole-life” modelling of soil and geostructure response, acknowledging that soil changes state and thus strength and stiffness due to loading, which can have significant effects on the performance of infrastructure throughout their design life. This work is developing new constitutive models for soft soils with non-local regularisation, methods to calibrate constitutive parameters using digital imaging techniques and probabilistic analysis, and simple design methods that account for the evolution of soil properties with time for industrial application. Check out the Research page to see some highlights of ongoing work.

Previous research has resulted in – to name a few – methods for predicting the “punch-through” or “crème brûlée” failure of jack-up rigs, new tools for subsea pipeline soil interaction assessment, numerical techniques for measuring displacements in images (e.g. GeoPIV-RG), and a simple model that explains why sand castles stand up! Check out the Publications page if you are interested in learning more.

Sam has significant consulting experience, particularly in the offshore energy sectors having worked directly for a number of energy sector supermajors in recent years. See the Consultancy page for a summary of his potential consulting expertise.

Finally, if you are interested in engaging with Sam’s research, check out the Opportunities page.