Professor Akshay Venkatesh FAA FRS—elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Professor Scott Sloan AO FAA FREng FRS FTSE
2 July 1954 to 23 April 2019
Professor Scott Sloan was elected to the Academy in 2007 for his fundamental contributions to computational geomechanics. He was the key architect of new numerical methods which enable engineers to predict the maximum load capacity of general types of geostructures (such as tunnels, dams, highways and foundations). His models and charts have been used in designs for the London Underground, Italian railways and million-dollar offshore oil and gas platforms. Professor Sloan also derived important new algorithms for implementing complex soil models, solving nonlinear finite element equations, generating finite element grids and solving large systems of sparse equations.
Professor Sloan was Laureate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Newcastle and Founding Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering. He was also a Visiting Professor at several national and international universities.
Since his election, Professor Sloan generously gave his time to the Academy. He served as a Member of sectional committees, the National Committee for Mechanical and Engineering Sciences and the Academy’s Europe Exchange Committee. In 2016 Professor Sloan was elected to the Academy’s Council and was due to finish his three-year term at the end of May this year.
In 2015, Professor Sloan was elected to the Royal Society, elected as an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and was the NSW Scientist of the Year. In 2018 Professor Sloan was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) ‘for his distinguished service to education, particularly in the field of geotechnical engineering, as an academic and researcher, to professional organisations and as a mentor to young scientists’.
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