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Professor Joel Smethurst

 BEng PhD GMICE FHEA
Professor

Research interests

  • Deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure subject to both seasonal cycles of wetting and drying and applied traffic loading
  • The effect of extreme weather events and climate change on the performance of earthworks (cuttings and embankments) and flood levees
  • The effects of vegetation transpiration and root reinforcement on the performance of earthworks

More research

Accepting applications from PhD students.

Connect with Joel

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 23 8059 8454

ORCID

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About Research Publications Supervision Teaching External roles and responsibilities Biography
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About

Joel Smethurst is Professor of Geotechnical Infrastructure within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. He is member of the Infrastructure Group and is currently the Director of Programmes for Civil Engineering.

"Geotechnical Engineering underpins the infrastructure that we all rely on every day – my research is about ensuring that as it ages, it continues to perform for society."

His main technical interest is in geotechnical infrastructure, including the long-term performance, deterioration/aging, and failure of geotechnical structures, and their upgrade and repair. This includes earthworks (cuttings and embankments) for transport infrastructure including transitions onto bridges, flood levees, retaining walls, and deep basement structures. Joel has also worked on large natural landslides, at Ironbridge and on the Hampshire coast.

Joel completed his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton in 2004, and was previously a Research Fellow (2002-2012), Lecturer (2012-2018) and Associate Professor (2018-2024) at the University.

He was a member of the Editorial Board of Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology from 2014 to 2022, has been a reviewer for more than 20 international scientific journals, and for research councils in the UK and abroad. Joel is also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers South Branch committee.

His Web of Science record is F-6734-2010

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