About
Dr Joel Smethurst is an Associate Professor in Geotechnical Engineering within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. He is member of the Infrastructure Research Group and is currently the Director of Programmes for Civil Engineering.
"Geotechnical Engineering underpins the transport infrastructure that we all rely on every day – my research is about ensuring that as it ages, it continues to perform for society."
His main technical interest is in geotechnical transport infrastructure, including the long-term performance, deterioration/aging, and failure of geotechnical structures, and their upgrade and repair.
Joel completed his PhD in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton in 2004, and was previously a Research Fellow (2004-2012), and Lecturer (2012-2018) at the University.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, has been a reviewer for more than 20 international scientific journals, and for research councils in the UK and abroad. Joel is also a member of the Insitution of Civil Engineers South Branch committee.
His Publons record is F-6734-2010
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- The effects of vegetation and climate on the performance of earthworks (cuttings and embankments)
- The stabilisation of both infrastructure slopes and large landslides using discretely spaced piles
- The mechanical stabilisation of soil by plants roots
- The use of terrestrial laser scanning in geotechnical engineering, and development of novel slope instrumentation approaches
- Short and long-term heave of clay beneath deep basement structures
Current research
Much of my research is based on field measurement of the performance of real structures, often over long periods of time, with one instrumented slope site having been monitored continuously for nearly 20 years. In many cases, field data have been used to calibrate numerical models which are used to further investigate behaviour and/or performance.
My research has been funded by EPSRC and a number of industrial partners including Cementation Skanska, Environment Agency, Highways England, London Underground, Mouchel, Mott MacDonald, Network Rail, and Rail Safety and Standards Board.
Current reaserch projects include the major EPSRC Programme Grant ACHILLES (www.achilles-grant.org.uk) which is investigating weather driven deterioration of clay earthworks, and a Network Rail project analysing transitions between clay embankments and underbridges.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
A short description of your teaching interests and responsibilities.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
A chance to go into more detail about your work and interests.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.