Prof. Harry Poulos answerring questions after his keynote lecture
HARRY POULOS
Harry Poulos obtained a Civil Engineering degree from the University of Sydney in 1961, and then went on to do a PhD degree in Soil Mechanics, graduating in 1965. He worked with the consulting firm of McDonald Wagner and Priddle for a year before joining joined the Department of Civil Engineering at Sydney University in 1965. He was appointed a Professor in 1982, a position which he held until his retirement in 2001. In 1989, he joined the consulting firm of Coffey Partners International, and is currently a Senior Principal with Coffey Geotechnics. He is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, and an Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
He has published books and technical papers on foundation settlements, pile foundations, and offshore geotechnics. His main research interests continue to be in deep foundations and their application to high-rise buildings, and to problems relating to ground movements near foundations.
He has been involved in a large number of major projects in Australia and overseas including the Docklands Project in Melbourne, the Crown tower development in Sydney, Egnatia Odos highway project in Greece, high-rise foundation problems in Hong Kong, the Emirates twin Towers in Dubai. the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, the Incheon 151 Tower in Korea, and the Dubai tower in Doha, Qatar.
He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1988 and a Fellow of The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1996, and in 1999 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia. In 2010, he was elected a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the first Australian to receive this honour, and in 2014, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
He has received a number of awards and prizes, including the Kevin Nash Gold Medal of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in 2005. He was the Rankine Lecturer in 1989 and the Terzaghi Lecturer in 2004, and was selected as the Australian Civil Engineer of the Year for 2003 by the Institution of Engineers Australia. In 1993, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to engineering,
