Title announced for the 64th Rankine Lecture by Professor William Powrie
For the 64th Rankine Lecture Professor William Powrie of the University of Southampton will present on ‘The role of behavioural mechanisms and observed performance in affordable, resilient geotechnical infrastructure’
The lecture will be held in London on 18th March 2026.
Please note that owing to refurbishment works at the Great Hall, Imperial College London, the venue for this year’s lecture has been changed to Ondaatje Lecture Theatre at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), South Kensington, London.
Full details of the event can be found HERE.
The Rankine Dinner will be held after the lecture. The call for tickets for the dinner will be announced nearer the event. The dinner will be held at the usual venue at Imperial College, which is about a 5-minute walk from the RGS. Please note the dinner is usually heavily oversubscribed.
Synopsis
Geotechnical infrastructure must be fit for purpose and resilient to changes in environmental or service loading and patterns of use. It must also be affordable to build, maintain and in some cases adapt. As some recent major projects have shown, achieving these goals together is a challenge. Unduly pessimistic load cases, over-cautious materials parameters and inappropriate assumed mechanisms of behaviour can all drive excessive conservatism and cost. The lecture will illustrate and discuss the use of observed performance and behavioural mechanisms in setting suitable boundary conditions and materials parameters, to achieve resilience affordably.
Speaker biography
William Powrie is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. His work on geotechnical aspects of transport infrastructure encompasses groundwater control, in-ground construction to reduce environmental impacts in urban and other sensitive areas, understanding and mitigating vegetation and climate change effects, and fundamental soil behaviour. His internationally-acclaimed textbook Soil Mechanics: Concepts and Applications is now in its third edition.
In 2025 Professor Powrie was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in King Charles’ Birthday honours.
