Prof Ismet Canbulat is a mining engineer with over 30 years of experience in research, consultancy, management, on-site and academia. He has BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from Istanbul Technical University, University of the Witwatersrand and University of Pretoria respectively. In South Africa, he worked for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), where he was a Research Area Manager in Rock Engineering Programme. After 10 years in research he moved to consultancy and worked for Groundwork Consulting and later for Strata Engineering (currently Golder Associates) in Australia as a Principal Engineer. In 2008, Ismet joined Anglo American Coal in Brisbane, where he was the Group Geotechnical Engineer for underground operations until November 2014. He was responsible for leading the development of geotechnical engineering standards, procedures and the best practices, supporting operations in mine design and green field projects at concept, pre-feasibility and feasibility levels, providing technical support for business risk management, technical support for design and selection of mining equipment as well as implementation of new technologies and research findings at operations. Since 2014, Ismet is Professor, Head of School and Kenneth Finlay Chair of Rock Mechanics at the School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, UNSW Sydney.

Ömer Aydan obtained his BSc degree in Mining Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, in 1979 and MSc degree in Rock Mechanics and Excavation Engineering from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1982, and his PhD in Rock Mechanics from Nagoya University, Japan, in 1989. Aydan worked at Nagoya University as a research associate (1987-1991), and at the Department of Marine Civil Engineering at Tokai University, first as Assistant Professor (1991-1993), then as Associate Professor (1993-2001), and finally as Professor (2001-2010). Aydan then became Professor of the Institute of Oceanic Research and Development at Tokai University, and he moved to The university of the Ryukyus, Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan in November, 2013 and retired at the end of March 2020. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa, Japan.

Mark graduated from The University of Queensland in 1982 with a Bachelor of Mining Engineering and during the 1980’s and 1990’s completed a Masters of Engineering Science in Rock Mechanics, while gaining geotechnical experience with various consultancy and research groups associated with the underground coal industry. Over the last 25 years Mark completed his PhD in Mining Engineering and has developed several geotechnical design techniques and software packages which are routinely and widely used by the Australian Collieries and are supplied via his company Geotechnical Software Services Pty Ltd.

Binayak Banerjee is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with more than nine years of underground working experience in one of the world's largest Pb-Zn deposit at Rampura Agucha Mine, Rajasthan, India. Binayak has a Masters of Science in Applied Geology from Presidency University, Kolkata and completed advanced rock mechanics training in Hard Rock Mining from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

Terry has degrees in civil engineering and a PhD in mining geomechanics. He has over 30 years’ experience across the coal and metalliferous sectors in both research and consulting including previous roles in CSIRO and AMC Consultants. Terry is active in the development of new design methods in geotechnical engineering and was awarded the Douglas Hay Medal in 2007 by the IMM for his work in longwall geomechanics. He led his own consulting business from 2008 working in both the civil and mining sectors. And formed Resource Geotechnical Pty Ltd in 2020 with a focus on characterization, modelling, analysis and design for the mining sector.