October 21, 2010
Educated at The University of Sydney, Australia, Dr. Rowe worked as a geotechnical engineer with the Australian Government Department of Construction prior to emigrating to Canada in 1978. He spent 22 years as a professor, including 8 years as Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Western Ontario. He is presently a Professor of Civil Engineering and the Vice-Principal (Research) at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. His research and consulting has been in the fields of Geotechnical, Geosynthetic, Hydrogeologic, Landfill, and Geoenvironmental Engineering. He is the lead author of the book Barrier Systems for Waste Disposal Facilities, and editor of the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Handbook for Kluwer Academic Publishers, and has more than 400 publications in refereed journals, conferences and books.
Dr. Rowe has supervised a large number of graduate students, many of whom have won awards for their research. His research and teaching has been recognized with a number of awards including the Killam Prize and Legget Medal. He has been very active in professional activities including having been President of the International Geosynthetics Society and President of the Canadian Geotechnical Society. He is currently Editor of the Journal Geotextiles and Geomembranes, a Co-Editor of the International Journal of Geomechanics and either an Associate Editor or member of the Editorial Board for twelve other journals. He was selected to present the Giroud Lecture (2002) by the International Geosynthetics Society, the 45th Rankine Lecture (2005) by the British Geotechnical Society, and the 23rd Manuel Rocha Lecture (2006) by the Portuguese Geotechnical Society, and has been elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada, The Canadian Academy of Engineering, Engineering Institute of Canada, Australian Institution of Engineers, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, and the American Society of Civil Engineers.