Dr. Chin Leo

Chin Leo received his education at the University of Adelaide, University of Queensland and University of Sydney. He obtained his PhD in 1994 from the University of Sydney and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. He has professional experience working in infrastructure and geotechnical engineering projects, including soil investigation, slope stability analysis and geotechnical issues of soft soils. Early in his research career, he studied groundwater and contamination problems in soils. During this period, he developed several numerical models for contaminant migration in porous media. Since early 2000s, he has been involved in poromechanics research dealing with consolidation, sedimentation-consolidation of soft soils, tunnel closure, vibrations of piles and foundations embedded in porous media. His research contributions in this area are primarily on the theoretical or computational side of continuum mechanics, in terms of formulation of the theoretical governing equations from first principle conservation laws, and development of analytical, semi-analytical and numerical finite element solution techniques. Another area of his research, mainly in the last 5 years, deals with characterization and remediation of geomaterials, namely: EPS geofoam, red mud, high power ultrasound remediation of contaminated soils and characterization of compacted sites using unorthodox techniques, such as by microtremor measurements. In this area of research, his contributions are primarily in relation to laboratory (triaxial, true triaxial, consolidation, high power ultrasonics etc), and field experimental work, with a significant computational component. He currently leads the GWEE (Geotechnical, Water and Environmental Engineering) research group at UWS.