Keynote Speakers
Sam Deeley
Sam is the Head of Coal Tip Safety Operations and Reclamation at the Welsh Government. He is a Chartered Geologist and UK Registered Ground Engineering Professional with experience in infrastructure, development and energy sectors. Sam is also the technical lead with the coal tip safety team, with responsibilities across the wider portfolio of tip safety and notable involvement in policy and bill development.
Rhona Marsland
Rhona is currently Asset Lead for Earthworks and Drainage at the Office of Rail and Road. She is a Chartered Civil Engineer and UK Registered Ground Engineering with over 15 years of experience, primarily within the railway engineering industry in the UK, Ireland and Canada.
Rhona has engineering management capability and is experienced in design and asset management of rail systems; including electrification, civil engineering design and remediation. Her design experience is complemented by on-site roles including investigation and construction supervision, as well as project management ability.
Her rail experience ranges from engineering manager roles on the East West Rail Phase 2, the CA$6.3 billion major public transit project – Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) in Canada, and Designer roles.
She is an Institution of Civil Engineers Reviewer, assessing candidates seeking Professional Qualification. Further, she is the Vice Chair of the ICE CPD Panel, due to take on the Chair role in 2023, as well as a member of the Professionalism Panel. She is a Non-Executive Director at Sustrans, providing advice and support to the charity with respect to the management of its structures assets.
Youssef Hashash
Professor Youssef Hashash holds a B.S. (1987), an M.S. (1988) and a Ph.D. (1992) in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his career with the PB/MK TEAM in Dallas on the Superconducting Super Collider Project. In 1994 he joined Parsons Brinckerhoff in San Francisco and worked on a number of underground construction projects in the U.S. and Canada including the Boston Central Artery/Tunnel project.
Professor Hashash joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. He teaches courses in Geotechnical Engineering, Numerical Modeling in Geomechanics, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Tunneling in Soil and Rock, and Excavation and Support Systems. His research focus includes deep excavations and tunneling in urban areas, earthquake engineering, continuum and discrete element modeling and soil-structure interaction as well as resiliency and sustainability of the built infrastructure. He also works on geotechnical engineering applications of deep learning, artificial intelligence, visualization, augmented reality, imaging and drone technologies. He is the geotechnical co-leader of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) led investigation into the Champlain Towers South Collapse in Surfside, Florida.
Professor Hashash is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a past president of the Geo-institute of ASCE and has received a number of teaching, university and professional awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the ASCE 2014 Peck medal. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2022.
Savina Carluccio
Executive Director, International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI)
Savina is the Executive Director of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI) and a fervent advocate of the role of civil engineers in tackling our society’s biggest challenges. She is an experienced Civil Engineer and infrastructure practitioner with almost two decades of experience advising government, infrastructure owners and operators, multi-lateral development banks and NGOs to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable and resilient infrastructure that is fit for the future. Prior to taking her role at ICSI, she worked as an Associate Director and infrastructure advisor at Arup and she was the Head of Guidance and Standards at the Resilience Shift. She also serves a member of Institution of Civil Engineers’ Advisory Board on sustainable and resilient infrastructure.
