Michael Hicks is Professor of Soil Mechanics and Head of Geo-Engineering at Delft University of Technology. He has over 30 years’ experience in the development and application of novel finite element codes in geotechnical engineering, specialising in constitutive modelling, soil heterogeneity, static liquefaction, strain localisation, stochastic analysis, adaptive mesh refinement and the material point method. Current projects include: probabilistic slope stability assessments accounting for uncertainties associated with soil variability; the role of large deformation analysis, both in the evolution and consequences of slope failure and in the ultimate limit state design of dykes; and mitigating the liquefaction potential of scour holes near the Oosterschelde Storm Surge Barrier in the Netherlands.
Professor Hicks is a member of ALERT Geomaterials and has chaired several international conferences, including Géotechnique’s 2005 Symposium in Print “Risk and Variability in Geotechnical Engineering,” NUMGE 2014 and the forthcoming 4th International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, to be held in Delft in 2018.