Professor Barry Clarke is a British

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

. He specialises in

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 als ...

and is Associate Director of the Institute of Resilient Infrastructure at

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. Clarke has also worked at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

, where he obtained his first degree. He is a prolific writer with more than a hundred research papers and reports to his name and has written a textbook on pressuremeters in engineering applications. Clarke has sat on many construction industry committees and bodies, particularly those associated with engineering education.

Early life

Clarke grew up in the North East of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and studied civil engineering at

. During his time there he attended a lecture given by leading civil engineer

Ove Arup Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and ...

and was greatly impressed by him. After graduation he joined the

Voluntary Services Overseas Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) is a not-for-profit international development organization charity with a vision for "a fair world for everyone" and a mission to "create lasting change through volunteering". VSO delivers development impact throug ...

programme and spent two years based at

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

Academic career

Clarke worked briefly for a site investigation company upon his return to the UK in 1973 but left to research soil mechanics at

. He moved away from full time research in 1984 to launch his

geotechnical investigation Geotechnical investigations are performed by geotechnical engineers or engineering geologists to obtain information on the physical properties of soil earthworks and foundations for proposed structures and for repair of distress to earthworks and ...

firm, PM Insitu Techniques, leaving Cambridge the same year to return to Newcastle University as a lecturer. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1992 and became Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Head of Civil Engineering in 1998. Clarke became

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of Business Development for science and engineering in 2003. Since 2008 he has worked at

, where he is Associate Director of the Institute of Resilient Infrastructure, and lives in nearby

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

with his wife, Sandra. He has also acted as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

and advisor to construction companies, particularly in regards to geotechnical matters. Clarke has published over a hundred research papers and reports and is the author of the textbook ''Pressuremeters in Geotechnical Design''.

Professional associations

Clarke joined the British Geotechnical Society in 1989, an organisation he would chair (in its new form as the British Geotechnical Association) in 2001, and started the Northern Geotechnical Group of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

(ICE) in 1992. He joined the Northumbria branch of the ICE in 1995, being elected chairman in 1998. In 2000 Clarke became a member of the construction industry's Joint Board of Moderators and has also chaired their further learning committee. He became chairman of ICE North and the ICE Ground Forum in 2002 and in 2003 set up the

Construction Industry Council The Construction Industry Council (CIC) is the representative forum for professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the United Kingdom construction industry. History The first proposals for a Building Indus ...

's North East branch. Clarke remains interested in the development of engineering education and is Member for Lifelong Learning of the Construction Industry Council Executive and also represents higher education on the board of CITB ConstructionSkills, the industry skills council. He has served as president of the Engineering Professors' Council and is a member of the Engineering Strategic Advisory Team of the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...

. Clarke was also a non executive director of the ICE's trading subsidiary, Thomas Telford Limited, from 2008 to 2012. He was elected president of the ICE and took office on 7 November 2012 for a one year term.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Barry Living people British civil engineers Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers Year of birth missing (living people)