Eugene Gallagher

I am a chartered civil engineer and chartered safety & health professional with over 25 years’ experience in containment engineering systems such as landfills, heap leach pads and tailings lagoons, also major earthworks, contaminated land and groundwater, and reuse of marginal materials.  I led a 15-strong design team responsible for Vault 9 at Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria and have worked internationally, with particular knowledge of geosynthetics.  Much of my professional experience has been in environmental geotechnics, straddling the disciplines of geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering.

As current Chair, longstanding member of the IAB and a Sheffield alumnus (MSc contaminant hydrogeology, 2008), I am keen that the IAB is active for the benefit of all our students, taught and research, as well as encouraging the department to be among the best in the UK.  We have a hugely talented and diverse student body, and the IAB’s role is to act as ‘critical friend’ to the civils department by providing appropriate challenge, encouragement, and support to the academic team.  I hope to foster more direct links with students and explore new approaches to deliver the best equipped graduates for the complex challenges society faces in the decades to come.