IROE Chair shares vision for optimising offshore geotechnics ahead of OSIG2027

Professor Susan Gourvenec reflects on a career connecting research and practice—and sets out how optimisation can support better decisions across the life cycle of offshore infrastructure.

Professor Susan Gourvenec, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and Director of the Centre of Excellence for Intelligent and Resilient Ocean Engineering (IROE), has been profiled in the September 2026 edition of the Society for Underwater Technology’s Big Blue World. The interview looks ahead to OSIG2027, where she will deliver the 8th ISSMGE McClelland Lecture, and traces a career spanning academia, industry, international standards and policy.

Susan describes how an early career in onshore transport infrastructure in the UK led somewhat unexpectedly to 16 years at the University of Western Australia and a career pivot to focus on offshore geotechnical engineering. Returning to Southampton in 2017, she was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies two years later and established IROE. Today, the IROE Centre of Excellence works across the complete life cycle of offshore infrastructure—from site selection and investigation to design, operation, life extension, decommissioning and reuse.

The interview highlights IROE research that is helping government and industry make more informed, responsible decisions. This includes GIS-based marine spatial planning; machine-learning-supported integration of geological, geophysical and geotechnical data; whole-life characterisation of evolving seabed properties; and efficient models for optimising foundations, anchors and mooring systems. Together, these approaches can help the offshore sector explore more options, understand risk and deliver infrastructure that is safer, more cost-effective and more sustainable.

Susan will use the McClelland Lecture at OSIG2027 to explore optimisation in both its broad and technical senses: making the best use of available information, data and resources, and applying mathematical methods to identify the best solution within defined criteria and constraints. Drawing on examples across the infrastructure life cycle, the lecture will consider where optimisation has been used—and where it could deliver further benefit—as offshore geotechnics supports larger, more complex and more urgent decisions through the energy transition.

Reflecting on the global offshore geotechnics community, Susan emphasises the value of collaboration between academia, industry and the wider geoscience community. Her advice to early career professionals is equally direct: get involved, build broad networks, remain curious and generous, and recognise the different strengths that each person brings. “Be rigorous in your engineering, and be a good colleague and a good citizen of the profession,” she says. “Teamwork makes the dream work!”

You can read the full article at https://publuu.com/flip-book/864160/2634518/page/16