Author: Nagaratnam Sivakugan

Dr. Jay Ameratunga has been a practising civil engineer for over 35 years specialising in geotechnical engineering. After graduating from the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, he obtained his Masters at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, and obtained his Ph D from Monash University, Australia. Early part of his career was spent in Sri Lanka before joining the Coffey Group in 1989. He has been involved with the investigation, design and construction of many major projects, especially in Australia and New Zealand, including the Gateway Upgrade Project and the Future Port Expansion Seawall Project in Brisbane, and the State Highway 16 Project in Auckland. He works closely with universities on major research projects and mentors Ph D students and young engineers. He has also been a visiting lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. He has co-authored close to 50 technical papers on soft clay, reclamation and ground improvement and has presented in conferences in Australia, New Zealand and at other international venues. He is a Past Chair, Australian Geomechanics Society, Queensland Division, a member of the Australian Standards Committee for Geosynthetics and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. Dr. Nagaratnam Sivakugan received his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, with First Class Honours, and M.S.C.E and Ph.D. from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.His writings include five books, 110 refereed international journal papers, 75 refereed international conference papers, and more than 100 consulting reports. As a registered professional engineer of Queensland and a chartered professional engineer, he does substantial consulting work for the geotechnical and mining industry in Australia and overseas, including the World Bank. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Engineers Australia. He has supervised 13 Ph.D. students to completion at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, where he was the Head of Civil Engineering from 2003 to 2014. Dr. Braja Das is Dean Emeritus of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at California State University, Sacramento. He received his M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in the area of Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of a number of geotechnical engineering texts and reference books and has authored more than 250 technical papers in the area of geotechnical engineering. His primary areas of research include shallow foundations, earth anchors, and geosynthetics. He is a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Life Member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and an Emeritus Member of the Chemical and Mechanical Stabilization Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council (Washington D.C.). Dr. Das has received numerous awards for teaching excellence, including the AMOCO Foundation Award, the AT&T Award for Teaching Excellence from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Ralph Teetor Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Texas at El Paso.