Associate Professor Dilan Robert

Dilan is an expert in geotechnical engineering and passionate about delivering implementable research outcomes in practice. He has over 15 years’ experience in geotechnical and underground infrastructure projects. He obtained his first degree (2005) from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and the PhD degree (2011) from University of Cambridge, UK. Prior to his role at RMIT (since 2014), he has worked 2 years as a Geotechnical Engineer in the UK and 2 years as a Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia.

His research areas include pipelines, road pavements, soil stabilization, waste recycling, soil-structure interaction analysis, offshore geotechnics, unsaturated soils, constitutive modelling of soil and concrete, and corrosion assessment of buried metals. He is the Director of Research and Education at Centre for Pavement Excellence Asia Pacific Ltd and Fellow of Australia-India strategic research fund (AISRF). Dilan is a Chief Investigator for many ongoing state/national/industry projects with value over $5 million. He has published over 150 technical papers since 2011 across his wide research areas and interests.

• PhD in Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK, 2011.
• B.Sc. Engineering Honours (1st Class & Gold Medallist), University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2005.
• Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning, RMIT University, Australia, 2014.
• Chartered Civil Engineer, 2019.

Prior to his academic positions in Australia since 2012, Dilan has worked overseas as a practising engineer to obtain 4 years of industry experience across number of infrastructure projects as briefed below.

• Geotechnical Engineer, KW Ltd, London, UK (2010-2012)

At KW, Ltd, Dilan worked as a subsea geotechnical engineering on various offshore pipeline projects in responsible of upheaval buckling analysis, reliability analysis, shore approach, slope stability, trencheability, expansion, pile design, backfilling assessments, settlement calculations and geotechnical data review.

• Civil Engineer, State Engineering Corporation (SEC), Sri Lanka (2005-2006)

At SEC, Dilan has experienced in all aspects of casting the pre-stressed and precast concrete structures such as bridge beams, electricity transition poles, hume pipes, hollow blocks, building components and other precast reinforced concrete items. Further, he managed more than 150 direct labourers at the construction site and worked in coordination with the subordinate staff.

• Research Engineer, Lanka Hydraulic Institute (LHI), Sri Lanka (2004-2005)

Dilan worked as a mathematical modeller at LHI for the construction of fishing harbours and ports.