Q&A with Phil Dight
NAME
Phil Dight
TITLE
Professor of Geotechnical Engineering
QUALIFICATIONS
BE, MSc, PhD
Everyone has a story to tell, and this month we asked Phil Dight, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, The University of Western Australia, the hard questions.
What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning?
I am energised by the fact I am learning every day, and that is a joy to experience.
Why did you choose your current career and how did you get to your current position?
After graduating in civil engineering and working for a couple of years, I completed a master’s in soil mechanics and then got a job at CSIRO working on mine backfill (Mt Isa, Broken Hill, King Island Scheelite). That is where my appetite began and I embarked on a PHD centred on Savage River Mines looking at how rockbolts work in shear, which was quite novel. I then embarked on another 20 years in consulting, practicing all I had learnt and discovered along the way that there was so much more to learn. I had worked with the Australian Centre for Geomechanics with my colleague Dr Peter Fuller presenting courses in geotechnical practice from its inception in 1993 and joined them full-time in 2008.
What is your favourite part of your job?
I find great joy in teaching and training the next group of world-class researchers and practitioners.
What do you find most challenging about your role?
I am at the age where I believe I am forgetting things faster than I am gaining new thoughts. There are so many shortcuts now adopted by our industry that good science has been ameliorated.
What is one thing you would like to change about the mining and geotechnics/rock engineering industry?
I would stipulate that all geotechnical reports be signed off by a corporate member of AusIMM.
What areas of the industry or trends do you think will become more important in coming years?
Our younger people are well versed in new technologies which they pick up very quickly. The challenge now is to encourage the practice of the art. For training purposes, privatisation has not worked and the hands-on skills are diminishing. This is compounded when we limit access to personal to active faces for safety reasons. The consequences are that we have dumbed down on our engineering because of a lack of observational skills.
If you could invite three people, alive or dead, to dinner – who would they be and why?
Leonardo da Vinci – an extraordinary renaissance man who was so far ahead of his time.
Marco Polo – to have experienced what he saw in his travels and to have the presence of mind to record so much.
Comte St Quentin – I am led to believe he was a forebear who had the sense to leave France so that I could exist.
What moment of your life would you want to re-live – and would you change anything?
I have had so many phases of my life where I have experienced great highs and some lows. I have been fortunate to find love twice. I would prefer to look forward to the next 30 years of unbridled excitement.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
To go and live and work in Tasmania.
What advice would you give to someone considering geotechnical or rock engineering as a career?
In our field, it is difficult for an engineer to admit the answers we are often looking for lie in the geology. You need to find mentors who will guide you when it is necessary. I learnt my structural geology by working closely with an exceptional man for 12 years who has made a significant difference to my understanding. Geotechnical engineering is a fantastic profession where if you know what you are looking for you will find it. Indeed, that is what research/applied research is all about in geotechnical engineering.