Dr Ellen Robson

Biography	I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience. My research focuses on improving the resilience of road networks in hilly/mountainous lower-income countries to landslides, and other natural hazards, by developing stakeholder-focused guidance and methodologies. The guidance and methodologies are developed by working collaboratively with stakeholders (academics, policy-makers, consultants, contractors), currently engaged with in Nepal and India, by employing a combination of methods including numerical analyses, geotechnical and geological mapping, and qualitative data collection. I currently have an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account working with the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, to develop road cut design policy guidelines that can be used by local engineers in Nepal to design cut slopes. This project is supported by the Nepal Geotechnical Society, Mott MacDonald, and the Department of Local Infrastructure. I am also working closely with colleagues at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi to document the damages of landslides that occurred in the Indian Himalayas during the 2023 monsoon season through unprecedented heavy rainfall and to improve the resilience of the road network in this region. We have an Industry Academia Collaborative Grant from the British Council, working alongside Maccaferri, to enhance civil engineering education by developing a curriculum that integrates disaster preparedness into transportation engineering, focusing on road infrastructure in India’s hilly terrain. I acquired my PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Newcastle University in 2023, which was sponsored by NERC IAPETUS. My PhD aimed to further understand some of the causes for inadequate road slope stabilisation in lower-income country settings, and to develop stakeholder-focused methodologies to aid the planning and design of road slope stabilisation. During my PhD, I completed a three-month internship at the Research and Information Service (RaISe) of the Northern Ireland Assembly. During the internship, I produced a blog post on transport trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland and a published research article and blog post on climate change risks to transport infrastructure in Northern Ireland. Prior to my PhD, I received an MSci in Geology from the University of Birmingham in 2017, with a year abroad at the University of Copenhagen. During my undergraduate, I conducted two months of research at the Open University using a 3D image viewer (Pro3D) to examine and measure ripple-like bedforms found along the Opportunity rover traverse of Mars.
Research Interests	Geotechnical Engineering Landslides Road engineering Slope stability

Biography

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience. My research focuses on improving the resilience of road networks in hilly/mountainous lower-income countries to landslides, and other natural hazards, by developing stakeholder-focused guidance and methodologies. The guidance and methodologies are developed by working collaboratively with stakeholders (academics, policy-makers, consultants, contractors), currently engaged with in Nepal and India, by employing a combination of methods including numerical analyses, geotechnical and geological mapping, and qualitative data collection.

I currently have an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account working with the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, to develop road cut design policy guidelines that can be used by local engineers in Nepal to design cut slopes. This project is supported by the Nepal Geotechnical Society, Mott MacDonald, and the Department of Local Infrastructure. I am also working closely with colleagues at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi to document the damages of landslides that occurred in the Indian Himalayas during the 2023 monsoon season through unprecedented heavy rainfall and to improve the resilience of the road network in this region. We have an Industry Academia Collaborative Grant from the British Council, working alongside Maccaferri, to enhance civil engineering education by developing a curriculum that integrates disaster preparedness into transportation engineering, focusing on road infrastructure in India’s hilly terrain.

I acquired my PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Newcastle University in 2023, which was sponsored by NERC IAPETUS. My PhD aimed to further understand some of the causes for inadequate road slope stabilisation in lower-income country settings, and to develop stakeholder-focused methodologies to aid the planning and design of road slope stabilisation.

During my PhD, I completed a three-month internship at the Research and Information Service (RaISe) of the Northern Ireland Assembly. During the internship, I produced a blog post on transport trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland and a published research article and blog post on climate change risks to transport infrastructure in Northern Ireland.

Prior to my PhD, I received an MSci in Geology from the University of Birmingham in 2017, with a year abroad at the University of Copenhagen. During my undergraduate, I conducted two months of research at the Open University using a 3D image viewer (Pro3D) to examine and measure ripple-like bedforms found along the Opportunity rover traverse of Mars.

Research Interests

Geotechnical Engineering
Landslides
Road engineering
Slope stability