About Us

Dr. Olivier Buzzi
Dr. Olivier Buzzi was admitted at the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) de Cachan in 1997 and obtained the French National Agrégation of Civil Engineering in 2000. He completed a Master on rock joints (in 2001) and PhD on the hydromechanical behaviour of contacts between geomaterials in the context of nuclear waste storage (completed in 2004) at the University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble.
Moving to Australia in 2005 to take up a post-doctoral position was the first step in Olivier’s career at the University of Newcastle. He began lecturing at the University in 2007, became senior lecturer in 2009, Associate Professor in 2012 and full Professor in 2018.
Olivier’s research interests span from rock mechanics (hydromechanical response of rock joints, rockfall) to soil mechanics (expansive soils, unsaturated soil mechanics, soil microstructure). Olivier has been pioneering the StADSS research since 2016, in collaboration with PhD students, with several Academics and PSM, Sydney.
Olivier served on the Editorial board of Computers and Geotechnics and Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, as an Associate Editor of Canadian Geotechnical Journal and of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering.

Dr. Clarence Butcher
Dr. Clarence Butcher is a geotechnical engineer educated at the University of Newcastle in Australia. After several years working in Geotechnical consulting, Clarence completed a PhD on the prediction of discontinuity shear strength for natural rock joints at full scale. His academic career has focused on the development of StADSS, including designing and performing a large in-situ pull test to validate StADSS predictions. Clarence has published his research work in top Academic journals and is now specialising in advancing the StADSS related research.