Professor Hywel Thomas
Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Geoenvironmental Research Centre
- thomashr@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4965
- Room S/0.48, Queen's Buildings - South Building, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA
Overview
Professor Hywel R. Thomas CBE, FREng, FRS, FLSW, MAE.
Professor Hywel Thomas is Professor of Civil Engineering; the founder Director of the Geoenvironmental Research Centre (GRC) at the University and a UNESCO Professor in the Development of a Sustainable Geoenvironment.
His research interests lie in the area of “Coupled Processes in the Ground”. His work has covered a wide range of geoenvironmental issues, from coupled multiphysics/geochemistry flow problems in soils and rocks, to waste disposal, including nuclear waste. Other subjects of interest include land regeneration and sustainability issues in general. Current interests are focused on the geoenergy field, with major projects on ground source heat, underground coal gasification, exploitation of unconventional gas and carbon sequestration in coal seams. He has worked extensively with the UN agencies, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNESCO and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).
In 2013, the Geoenvironmental Research Centre was awarded the Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, “In recognition of geoenvironmental solutions to major challenges of land, ground water quality and regeneration.”
His academic achievements have been recognised by election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2012, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2003, a Member of Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe (MAE) in 2012 and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW) in 2011. He was recently made an Honorary Professor at Zhejiang University, China.
He was the Director of the School of Engineering at Cardiff University for the 8 year period 2002 to 2010. He was subsequently a Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for a further 8 year period from 2010 to 2018. During this time he initially covered the Innovation, International and Engagement portfolios before taking on the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement, from 2013 to 2018.
In 2017 he received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for “Services to Academic Research and Higher Education”.
Biography
Honours and awards
* Appointed: Fellow of the Royal Society, 2012 * Elected: Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2003 * Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales * Delivered: 15 keynote and invited lectures at international conferences (e.g. 11th Int. Assoc. of Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics, Italy, 2005) * Editorial Board Member: Geotechnique,2001, Int. J. of Geomechanics, International J. for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics * Member: EPSRC Technical Opportunities Panel (TOP), 2006-date * Member: RAEng Standing Committee for Research and Secondment and Lead Assessor for Civil Engineering, 2005-date, and Standing Committee for International Activities 2007-date * Reviewer: Research Quality Framework (RAE-equivalent) at Monash University, 2006 * Member and Chair Elect: UN International Atomic Energy Agency Technical Committee “Building Confidence in Geological Disposal of High Level Nuclear Waste”, 2001-date * Guest Editor: Geotechnique Symposium in Print, 2003, Special Issue of Engineering Geology on Geoenvironmental Engineering, 2001 and 2003 * Consultant: International Atomic Energy Agency.
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Contracts
| Title | People | Sponsor | Value | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-Carb-Cymru: Assessing, characterising and enhancing geologic carbon storage and geothermal energy in Wales | Sedighi M, Thomas HR, Tripathy S | Ser Cymru NRN Bangor | 284000 | 01/01/2015 - 31/12/2018 |
| Feasibility of dedicated unit to develop environmental and social responsibility (ESR) tools within geoenvironmental and waste sectors in Wales | Koj A, Thomas HR | National Assembly for Wales (KEF) | 19903 | 01/01/2009 - 30/04/2009 |
| Decision information support systems for POPs (GUDISS) | Koj A, Thomas HR | United Nations Industrial Development Organization | 12907 | 05/07/2007 - 31/12/2007 |
| Identification and simulation of arsenic release to groundwater in Bangladesh | Prof RN Yong, Prof HR Thomas | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 123119 | 01/04/2001 - 31/03/2004 |
| Coupled thermal-hydrological-mechanical -chemical processes for application in repository safety assessment - THERESA | Prof HR Thomas | Commission of European Communities | 77860 | 01/01/2007 - 31/12/2010 |
| Hydraulic conductivity of expansive clays from micro-structural and physico-chemical considerations | Prof HR Thomas | British Council | 2700 | 01/07/2007 - 01/07/2009 |
| Geoenvironmental engineering infrastructure co-operation network | Prof HR Thomas | Commission of European Communities | 35174 | 01/01/2001 - 31/12/2004 |
| Wales Waste and Resources Research Centre | Prof HR Thomas | National Assembly for Wales (WAG) | 560388 | 01/11/2006 - 31/03/2009 |
| A geoenvironmental research and legislative development information exchange on land and marine environmental sustainability and industrial waste management | Prof HR Thomas | The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation | 2500 | 01/10/2001 - 01/04/2003 |
| Evaluation of Sustainable Development Toolkit - REVIT | Prof HR Thomas | Torfaen Count Borough Council | 5000 | 21/11/2006 - 20/02/2007 |
| Regeneration of European sites in cities and urban environments (RESCUE) | Prof HR Thomas | Commission of European Communities | 158196 | 01/03/2002 - 28/02/2005 |
| Cardiff distributed visualisation facility | Prof HR Thomas, (with COMSC & PHYSX) | Education and Learning Wales | 400000 | 01/03/2001 - 01/03/2004 |
| Sustainable groundwater management in rural India - Geoenvironmental/Health/Social aspects | Prof HR Thomas, (with University of Surrey) | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 12376 | 29/04/2005 - 28/04/2006 |
| Modelling pre-failure shear strain (solifluction) in freezing and thawing soil slopes | Prof HR Thomas, Dr PJ Cleal,l (with EARTH) | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 192705 | 01/05/2005 - 30/04/2008 |
| 3D virtual reality platform for data analysis of large scale simulation for geoenvironmental problems | Prof HR Thomas, Dr PJ Cleall | Education and Learning Wales | 186548 | 01/12/2001 - 31/07/2002 |
| Geoenvironmental Research Park | Prof HR Thomas, Dr RW Francis | The National Assembly for Wales (European Regional Development Fund) | 2506714 | 01/10/2001 - 01/10/2004 |
| Sustainable materials recovery | Prof HR Thomas, Dr RW Francis, Dr T Mahdi | Welsh Development Agency | 148123 | 01/01/2005 - 31/03/2006 |
| Fibre reinforced soil trials | Prof HR Thomas, Dr T Mahdi | TRL Limited Wales Office | 7698 | 01/02/2005 - 30/04/2005 |
| Implementing sustainable E&T programmes in the field of Radioactive Waste Disposal | Thomas H | European Commission (FP7) | 57400 | 01/09/2013 - 31/08/2016 |
| Thermal inverse modelling and olkiluoto monitoring programme | Thomas H, Sedighi M | Posiva | 34610 | 15/01/2014 - 30/06/2014 |
| PETRUS II - Towards a European Training Market and Professional Qualification in Geological Disposal | Thomas HR | European Commission (FP7) | 50932 | 15/01/2009 - 14/01/2012 |
| Socio-economic aspects of POPs contaminated sites | Thomas HR | United Nations Industrial Devopment Organization | 5178 | 11/10/2005 - 11/10/2006 |
| Contaminated land remediation technologies | Thomas HR | United Nations Industrial Development Organization | 16491 | 01/03/2009 - 30/06/2009 |
| Multiphase computer modelling of near field environment around an underground geological repository | Thomas HR | Ove Arup & Partners Ltd | 35500 | 01/02/2009 - 01/02/2012 |
| Centre of excellence for waste research in Wales | Thomas HR | E B Nationwide Ltd | 587453 | 01/03/2003 - 28/02/2006 |
| Regional project to develop appropriate strategies for identifying sites contaminated by chemicals listed in annexes A, B and/or C of the Stockholm convention | Thomas HR | United Nations Industrial Devopment Organization | 39900 | 07/11/2005 - 06/03/2006 |
| Co-ordination action on education and training in radiation protection and radioactive waste management [CETRAD] | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ | Commission of European Communities | 50394 | 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2005 |
| A land regeneration, industrial waste management and sustainable development network | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ, Owen DH | The National Assembly for Wales (European Regional Development Fund) | 235779 | 01/11/2002 - 31/10/2005 |
| SUE: Pollutants in the urban environment (PUrE)- scoping study | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ, (with University of Surrey) | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 18497 | 01/01/2004 - 30/09/2004 |
| A land regeneration, Industrial management and sustainable development network | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ, Owen DH | The National Assembly for Wales (European Regional Development Fund) | 66412 | 14/10/2002 - 13/10/2004 |
| Capacity Building | Thomas HR, Francis RW | United Nations Industrial Development Organization | 15405 | 01/03/2009 - 01/07/2009 |
| Geoenvironmental research park Phase 2 | Thomas HR, Mahdi T, Francis RW | Various Industry | 2603746 | 31/03/2006 - 30/06/2008 |
| Geoenvironmental research park Phase 2 | Thomas HR, Mahdi T, Francis RW | Various Institutions | 76847 | 31/03/2006 - 30/06/2008 |
| SEREN | Thomas HR, Williams KP, Sapsford D, Tripathy S, Griffiths AJ | Welsh European Funding Office, British Geological Survey | 5576619 | 01/03/2010 - 30/06/2015 |
| A centre for the development of advanced descision support tools in the environment field | Thomas HR, Yi L | National Assembly for Wales (WAG) | 19889 | 01/09/2008 - 31/12/2008 |
| Land regeneration network | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ | Welsh Development Agency | 20000 | 01/11/2005 - 01/04/2006 |
| NF-PRO thermo-hyrdo-mechanical (geochemical) processes in the EBS (RTD3) | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ | Nirex Ltd | 26800 | 01/06/2004 - 31/12/2007 |
| Pollutants in the urban environments (PURE) | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ, (with University of Surrey) | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | 295131 | 01/04/2005 - 31/03/2009 |
| Contribution of DFIG based wind turbines to system voltage support | Thomas HR, Ekanayake J | Association of Commonwealth Universities | 1430 | 15/09/2008 - 14/12/2008 |
| Geoenvironmental research park Phase 2 | Thomas HR, Mahdi T, Francis RW | The National Assembly for Wales (European Regional Development Fund) | 2979406 | 31/03/2006 - 30/06/2008 |
| Thermal evolution monitoring in Oikiluoto | Thomas HR, Sedighi M | Posiva | 29164 | 15/04/2013 - 31/12/2013 |
| Institute for Compound Semiconductors | Thomas HR, Tasker P, Griffin M, Smowton P, Buckle P (PHYSX), | Welsh Government | 6000000 | 01/04/2015 - 31/03/2018 |
| A land regeneration, industrial waste management and sustainable development network | Thomas HR, Cleall PJ, Owen DH | The National Assembly for Wales (European Regional Development Fund) | 156164 | 14/10/2002 - 13/10/2004 |
| Engineered barrier systems: An integrated approach | Thomas HR, Tripathy S, Vardon P | Fec methodology by EPSRC via Strathclyde | 136233 | 01/04/2012 - 31/03/2016 |
| Large Scale data visualisation, event identification and numberical simulation for gas | Thomas HR, Vardon P | NERC/BGS | 59059 | 04/01/2010 - 31/12/2013 |
| Landfill gas modelling | Cleall PJ, Thomas HR | Persimmon Homes (West Midlands) Ltd | 18950 | 01/05/2003 - 01/05/2006 |
| Understanding and physical and numerical modelling of the key processes in the near-field, and their coupling, for different host rocks and repository strategies (NF-PRO) | Cleall PJ, Thomas HR | Commission of European Communities | 160800 | 01/01/2004 - 31/12/2007 |
Supervised Students
| Title | Student | Status | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| A STUDY OF THE TRANSPORT OF A SELECTION OF HEAVY METALS IN UNSATURAED SOIL | HASHM Ahlim Ahmed | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation Of The Behaviour Of The Ground In Response To Energy Extraction | HEPBURN Benjamin | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of the Thermo/Hydro/Mechanical Behaviour of Large Scale Experiments including Parametric Studies on Var | TEY Chun Yean | Graduate | PhD |
| Experimental Study On The Hydraulic Conductivity Of Compacted Bentonites In Geoenvironmental Applications | BENNETT Claire | Graduate | PhD |
| Decision Support System for Brownfield Site Sustainabvle Regeneragtion | PELLEGRINO Cristina | Graduate | MPhil |
| Exploratory Data Analysis Of The Large Scale Gas Injection Test (LASGIT) | BENNETT Daniel | Graduate | PhD |
| Arsenic Mobility in Sediments and Contamination of the Begal Basin | SHAW Darren | Graduate | PhD |
| An Assessment of the Possibility of Stabilising Sabkha Soils Using Oil Lakes Residue - Reuse of Waste Materials | AL-OTAIBI Fahad | Graduate | PhD |
| A Study of the Thermo/Hydro/Mechanical Behaviour of Two Large Scale In-Situ Experiments | MITCHELL Heather Patricia | Graduate | PhD |
| Critical Evaluation of some suction measurement techniques | ELGABU Hesham | Graduate | PhD |
| CARBON DIOXIDE ADSORPTION/DESORPTION AND PERMEABILITY CHARACTERISTICS IN COAL AND ROCKS AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY | FELIX Joao Filipe Ruivo | Current | PhD |
| An Investigation into the Use of Chicken Manure to Enhance the Biodegradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons | BRICE Kathryn | Graduate | PhD |
| Effect Of Gypsum On The Hyrdo-Mechanical Characteristics Of Partially Saturated Sandy Soil | AHMED Khalid Ibrahim | Graduate | PhD |
| A Decision Support System for the Environmental Impact of e-business | YI Lan | Graduate | PhD |
| Reactive Transport Modelling Of High Pressure Gas Flow In Coal | HOSKING Lee James | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of Hydro-Geotechnical processes in Coupled Thermal, Hydraulic, Chemical and Mechanical Behaviour of Unsaturated Soils | SEDIGHI Majid | Graduate | PhD |
| Modelling the Freezing and Thawing Behaviour of Saturated Soil | GLENDINNING Mark Charles | Graduate | PhD |
| Soil-Water Characteristic Curves And Shrinkage Behaviour Of Highly Plastic Clays: An Experimental Invesitigation | MOHD TADZA Mohd Yuhyi | Graduate | PhD |
| AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF FLOW AND REACTION PORCESSES DURING GAS STORAGE AND DISPLACEMENT IN COAL | HADI MOSLEH Mojgan | Graduate | PhD |
| An integrated, multicriteria, spatial decision support system, incorporating environmental, social and public health presepectives, for use in geoenergy and geoenvironmental applications | IRFAN Muhammad | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of the Consolidation Behaviour of Steel Works Sludge | DAUD Nik Norsyahariati Nik | Graduate | PhD |
| Aspects of the Geological Disposal of High Level Nuclear Waste | STRATOS Panagiotis | Current | PhD |
| Enhancing groundwater remediation techniques through microbiological control of fluid flow | ALSHIBLAWI Paris | Thesis Submitted | PhD |
| AN INVESTIGATION OF THE THERMO/HYDRAULIC/MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF UNSATURATED SOILS, INCLUDING EXPANSIVE CLAYS | CLEALL Peter John | Graduate | PhD |
| A Three-Dimensional Numerical Investigation of the Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Behaviour Of A Large Scale Prototype Repository | VARDON Philip | Graduate | PhD |
| CoupledThermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Behaviour of MX80 Bentonite In Geotechnical Applications | BAG Ramakrishna | Graduate | PhD |
| An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Heat and Mass Movement in Unsaturated Clays | SINGH Rao Martand | Graduate | PhD |
| An investigation of reactive high pressure gas transport in coal | ZAGORSCAK Renato | Current | PhD |
| Modelling of Reactive Gas Transport in Unsaturated Soil - A Coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Approach | MASUM Shakil Al | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of the Influence of Elevated Temperatures on the Thermal-Hydraulic-Mechanical Response of Unsaturated Soils | SIDDIQUA Sumi | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of the Thermo/hydro/chemical/mechanical Behaviour of Unsaturated Soils | SEETHARAM Suresh Channarayapatna | Graduate | PhD |
| An Investigation of the Three-dimensional Thermo/hydro/mechanical Behaviour of Large Scale in-situ Experiments | MELHUISH Troy Alexander | Graduate | PhD |
| Enhanced Natural Attenuation of Organic Chemical Contaminants in Groundwater | AMBER Wayne Richard | Graduate | PhD |
| An Experimental Investigation Of Landfill Leachate Impact On Surrounding Soil | MILAD Ziad Abdelsalam | Graduate | PhD |