Geotechnical Practitioner of the Year 2010 and Civil Engineer of the Year 2011

Andrew Leventhal

Andrew is the current AGS Geotechnical Practitioner of the Year and Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year. These are both prestigious awards within Australian engineering.

The Civil Engineer of the Year award is presented annually by the Civil College of Engineers Australia to an eminent Civil Engineer considered to have made a major contribution to the profession. The AGS GPY biennial award is “for significant contribution to the practice of the geotechnical profession and the life-blood of our Society.

The award complements other AGS awards. AGS National Chairman at the time, Graham Scholey, when presenting the award to Andrew noted that “the award recognises contributions of the highest order over an extended period with a commitment to the geotechnical profession in Australia and to the Australian Geomechanics Society”.

Andrew’s presentation will cover:

• salient features and “take-away” lessons from some of the geotechnical projects selected from his portfolio over the last 4 decades;
• background to the development of the Landslide Risk Management framework for Australia, dealing more with the challenges and issues in bringing the framework to fruition than specifically the guidelines themselves; and
• particular (and dare it be said) novel applications and challenging geotechnical responses, and their interpretation, for a current project relating to management of the Main Southern Railway south of Sydney during underground longwall mining, whilst permitting safe operation of the railway together with unimpeded mining.

Engineers Australia members participating in AGS technical sessions can record attendance on their personal CPD logs. Members should refer to Engineers Australia CPD policy for details on CPD types, requirements and auditing guidelines.