David William Hight One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 17 August 1943) is a senior consultant at the Geotechnical Consulting Group, a company providing high-level expertise in the field of

geotechnical engineering Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials. It uses the principles of soil mechanics and rock mechanics for the solution of its respective engineering problems. It a ...

and well known for bridging the gap between research and engineering practice.

Education

Hight was educated at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...

, where he was awarded

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

and

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast ...

degrees followed by a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

in 1983 carried out in the soil mechanics section of the

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

department, headed by

Alan W. Bishop Alan Wilfred Bishop (27 May 1920 – 30 June 1988) was a British geotechnical engineer and academic, working at Imperial College London. He was known for the Bishop's method of analysing soil slopes. After his graduation from Emmanuel Colleg ...

and

John Burland John Boscawen Burland (born 4 March 1936) is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Investigator at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London. In 2016, Burland was elected as a member into the Natio ...

Career

Hight served as a lecturer at Imperial College between 1975 and 1983, and has been visiting professor at Imperial College (1993–2012), at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in th ...

(2000) and

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(1983). He has synthesised the causes and effects of disturbance to soil samples and introduced methods to minimise sample disturbance and to assess sample quality. This has enabled him to become an expert in characterising the real behaviour of natural soils, including quantifying their scale of

anisotropy Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's phys ...

of strength and stiffness. Using this expertise Hight has specialised in forensic engineering, investigating geotechnical failures of tunnels, embankments, road pavements, and port constructions; work that has opened up new avenues of research and led to new approaches to design and construction, including participating in the introduction of compensation

grout Grout is a dense fluid which hardens to fill gaps or used as reinforcement in existing structures. Grout is generally a mixture of water, cement and sand, and is employed in pressure grouting, embedding rebar in masonry walls, connecting sec ...

ing. He has carried out technical audits on the foundations of numerous engineering projects including

Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport is Hong Kong's main airport, built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. The airport is also referred to as Chek Lap Kok International Airport or ''Chek Lap Kok Airport'', to distingu ...

, the Rio–Antirrio bridge in Greece and

Heathrow Terminal 5 Heathrow Terminal 5 is an airport terminal at Heathrow Airport, the main airport serving London. Opened in 2008, the main building in the complex is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom. Terminal 5 is currently used exclusi ...

Awards and honours

Hight was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from aro ...

(FREng) in 2001 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2016.

References

Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering 1943 births {{UK-scientist-stub