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Dalhousie University, Canada
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Hany El Naggar is a Professor of GeoStructural Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil and Resource Engineering at Dalhousie University, with over 25 years of experience in civil construction, geotechnical, and structural engineering in Canada and abroad. His interdisciplinary expertise focuses on resilient and sustainable infrastructure, including climate change impacts, recycled waste materials, finite element analysis, and soil-structure interaction (SSI) modelling. Dr. El Naggar and his team have designed a wide range of infrastructure systems, including machine and raft foundations, underground structures, sewer and water networks, energy systems, bridges, and transportation tunnels across Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. His research has resulted in more than 250 technical publications covering experimental and numerical studies in SSI, resilient buried infrastructure, and concrete pipes. His pioneering work on the seismic performance of corrugated steel plate culverts and soil- metal bridges led to significant revisions to the seismic provisions of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CHBDC, 2019 & 2025), ensuring safer, more resilient infrastructure across Canada and the world. He also contributed to the 5th edition of the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual (2023) by introducing a new pile design procedure that improved consistency in pile capacity calculations. In addition, his work on modelling buried concrete structures has been recognized as best practice in CHBDC (2019). These contributions were recognized with the 2024 G. Geoffrey Meyerhof Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society.
University of Leeds, UK
Plenary Speaker
Dr. Hai-Sui Yu is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leeds, UK, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011. Professor Yu worked at the University of Newcastle, Australia from 1990-2000 before taking up the foundation Professorship of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Nottingham in 2001, where he founded the Nottingham Centre for Geomechanics (NCG). He also served as Head of the School of Civil Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor there. Professor Yu’s main research activities have focused on theoretical and computational geomechanics, constitutive modelling, in-situ soil testing, and pavement & railway geotechnics. Professor Yu is very active in professional activities and services and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Geomechanics and Geoengineering. He has been awarded many prestigious international medals and prizes for his research work, which include the British Geotechnical Association Medal for 2015, the Outstanding Contributions Medal of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) in 2014, the Chandra Desai Medal of IACMAG in 2008, the first James K Mitchell Lecture of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in 2004, Shamsher Prakash Foundation’s Research Award in 2003, the Institution of Civil Engineers’ highest research paper award, the Telford Medal, in 2000, and Australian Geomechanics Society’s Trollope Medal in 1998.
University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Keynote Speaker
Shideh Dashti is a Professor in Geotechnical Engineering and Geomechanics at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and the Associate Chair for Administration in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. She also directs a college-funded interdisciplinary research theme titled RISE: Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity. Shideh obtained her undergraduate degree at Cornell University in 2004 and graduate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. She worked briefly with ARUP and Bechtel on several engineering projects in the U.S. and around the world, spanning seismic design of underground structures, foundations, and slopes. Her research team at CU studies: the interactions and interdependencies among infrastructure systems during earthquakes and climatic extremes; seismic performance of underground structures; triggering, consequence, and mitigation of the liquefaction hazard at local and regional scales; impact of compound climatic-seismic hazards on geotechnical infrastructure; and the intersection of resilience, environmental sustainability, and justice. She is the recipient of the 2018 Arthur Casagrande Award and the 2021 Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE as well as the 2025 Distinguished Lecture Award from EERI, among other recognitions.
University of Bristol, UK
Keynote Speaker