David Airey

Professor David Airey is a faculty member in the School of Civil Engineering at The University of Sydney. He earned a BA, MSc, and PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on improving understanding of soil and rock behavior to enhance infrastructure safety and sustainability. Key areas include geotechnical engineering, soil mechanics, offshore structures, and ground improvement methods. He has served as Acting Head of School (2016) and is involved in editorial roles for journals like the Geotechnical Testing Journal.

Research Interests: His work addresses risks in construction excavation, ground improvement, and offshore platform foundations. He develops models to predict soil behavior and mitigate hazards like soil liquefaction. Recent studies include transparent soil observations for fines migration and cyclic mobility in sands.

Publications Trends: Over 200+ peer-reviewed articles (2025-2021) span topics like constitutive models for cemented materials, bio-cemented sands, and submarine landslide hazards. Recent work emphasizes unsaturated soil dynamics and self-healing clay mechanisms.

Students: Supervises PhD/Master’s research on soil stabilization, microplastic contamination, and foundation engineering challenges. Current advisees include Hamed Faizi and Yifei Gao.

Labs/Teams: Affiliated with the Net Zero Institute, SciGEM, and Centre for Wind, Waves and Water. Engages in collaborative projects on carbon sequestration and geomechanical modeling.