WRL Continues to Attract International Speakers for the 2012 Lunchtime Seminar Series
WRL has long been regarded as a unique place to work and visit. The combination of academic staff, a commercial project team and unique facilities attracts visitors from around the world. To assist in sharing information, WRL hosts a lunchtime seminar every Thursday in our recently renovated Lecture Room.
The Lunchtime Seminar Series was kick-started with a week-long workshop presented by Dr Steven Hughes. Dr Hughes was formerly a Senior Research Hydraulic Engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory for 30 years, and has authored a comprehensive textbook about physical modelling and laboratory techniques as applied to coastal engineering. The workshop was highly valuable and ensured our physical modelling techniques are equal to world standards.
WRL has also attracted a range of key international speakers including the 2012 Darcy Lecturer, Professor Hassanizadeh of Utrecht University, who discussed capillarity in porous media, on micro- and macro scales; and Herbert Huppert of the University of Cambridge - a leading academic in fluid mechanics of dense currents. Both presentations were directly related to projects undertaken recently at WRL.
Recently WRL hosted a presentation by John Headland, one of five appointed Commissioners to PIANC USA and a Board Director for the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute. Over 80 guests visited WRL for this interesting and highly political talk on adaptive management approaches to sea level rise for coastal and port structures. The seminar was supported the Australian Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Settlements and Infrastructure (ACCARNSI), PIANC Australia, and Engineers Australia’s NSW Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP).
Finally, last week WRL hosted Professor James Goff from the Australia-Pacific Tsunami Research Centre and Natural Hazards Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. Professor Goff provided an interesting seminar on tsunami behaviour and history across the Pacific Ocean over the past 700 years.
If you are interested in attending a Lunchtime Seminar Series event please contact Jamie Ruprecht at: j.ruprecht@wrl.unsw.edu.au
