I am Professor in Structural Dynamics & Vibration within the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

The main thrust of my research has been the modelling of waves by efficient methods. I am interested in novel methods for acoustic and elastic wave problems, which are much more efficient than conventional finite elements. My research includes modelling of soil-structure interaction, traffic ground vibration transmission in soils and mitigation measures, dynamic effects of high-speed moving trains on soft soils, on-shore induced ground vibration, efficient modelling of high-gradient heat transfer phenomena, and thermo-mechanical effects on structures. I also deal with in-situ and full-scale laboratory testing of various structures.

I obtained my PhD from Ecole Centrale de Nantes, in France, in soil-structure interaction problems applied to traffic vibration reduction. Then I moved to Durham University, where I worked as Senior Research Fellow on novel numerical methods for wave problems at high frequencies. In 2004, I joined Heriot-Watt University as an academic within the Civil Engineering discipline.

Currently, I am the Director of the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment. I am an executive member of the UK Association for Computational Mechanics and a member of the General Council of the International Association for Computational Mechanics. I am Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. I am Subject Editor of Applied Mathematical Modelling.