Meet the centre director

Distinguished Professor Buddhima Indraratna, a Member of the Order of Australia, is the Director of the UTS Transport Research Centre. Under his pioneering leadership, the centre is now positioned to become a global leader in smart, resilient and sustainable transportation infrastructure and systems.

Professor Indraratna is a civil engineering graduate from Imperial College, London. Since his PhD (University of Alberta) in 1987, his contributions to geotechnical and railway engineering have been acknowledged through numerous prestigious national and international awards. On Australia Day 2024, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his significant contributions to civil engineering, particularly through infrastructure development, ground improvement and transportation geotechnics.

In 2024, he became the first Australian to receive the José Entrecanales Ibarra International Civil Engineer Award, a prestigious international civil engineering award presented in Madrid, Spain. In the same year, he was also honoured as the Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year by Engineers Australia.  

Professor Indraratna's distinguished career is further marked by several prestigious honour lectures of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), including the inaugural Ralph Proctor Lecture and the 4th Louis Ménard Lecture. He will also deliver the Sustainability of Geotechnical Engineering Honour Lecture in Lisbon in 2027.

In 2009, Professor Indraratna delivered the prestigious E.H. Davis Memorial Lecture of Australian Geomechanics Society for his distinguished contributions to theory and practice of geomechanics. More recently, he delivered the 2025 Distinguished Lecture of the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the 5th C.S. Desai Memorial Lecture in 2026 hosted by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG). 

For his pioneering contributions, he was honoured with the 2009 Business and Higher Education award by the Australian Government, the 2011 Engineers Australia Transport Medal and 2015 Australasian Railway Technical Society’s Outstanding Individual Award. His numerous international awards include the Thomas Telford Premium and the 2023 Sir M. Visvesvaraya Prize from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Robert Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the 2017 Medal of Excellence for lifetime contributions from the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG).

More recently, he received the 2024 Thomas Keefer Medal and the 2025 Donald Stanley Award from the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering for outstanding contributions to civil and environmental engineering. 

Professor Indraratna currently leads numerous major research projects and has attracted over $35 million in research funding during the past two decades. Most of his projects involve strong industry collaboration, particularly through Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage projects and research training initiatives.

He has worked extensively with major transport, geotechnical and infrastructure organisations in Australia and internationally, including Sydney Trains, Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC), Transport for NSW, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, SMEC, Bridgestone, EcoFlex Australia, Menard Oceania, Glencore Mines, SLR Geotechnics, Tetra Tech Coffey, and various other geotechnical and transport organisations. He has also served as a consultant to numerous geotechnical and railway organisations worldwide. 
 
Professor Indraratna has published over 1000 scholarly works, including 14 books and more than 530 journal papers, and has delivered over 70 invited keynote and distinguished lectures across all continents. With an H-index of 103 and more than 38,000 citations, he is among the most highly cited researchers in geotechnical engineering worldwide and is recognised as a world-leading expert in transportation geotechnics, railway engineering and ground improvement. He has supervised nearly 100 PhD graduates and more than 40 Postdoctoral Fellows, making a significant contribution to the development of the next generation of geotechnical and transportation engineering researchers.  

Professor Indraratna is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN), a Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust), a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE), and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (FGS). He is also an Honorary Life Member of the Australian Geomechanics Society and a Chartered Engineer in Australia and the United Kingdom.