Ray Wood graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in Engineering in 1979. He has worked in geotechnical engineering with Fugro for 46 years in many sectors of civil engineering and regions of the world. He has undertaken employment placements in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the United States and has project experience throughout Asia, Middle East, South America, Europe and Australia. He has specialised in the geotechnical engineering of soft soils both on land and in a marine environment and has been closely involved in the design and development of several specialist items of drilling, sampling and in-situ testing equipment for Fugro. He is currently provides business and technical consultancy support to Fugro’s initiatives the Metals and Minerals industry sector.

Kobi Song is a Geotechnical Engineer at Red Earth Engineering. Kobi has expertise in geotechnical design and analysis. He is experienced in implementing geotechnical projects, including slope stability, retaining walls, tailings and water dams, and ground improvement. He is familiar with various geotechnical laboratory and field-testing techniques and procedures.

Yasmin Byrne, CEng., is a Senior Engineer at ConeTec, specializing in geotechnical engineering and in situ testing research. With a decade of experience, she has worked extensively with advanced site investigation techniques, including high-resolution pressuremeter testing and variable-rate vane shear testing. Her current research focuses on improving determination of undrained shear strength in tailings, enhancing methods for observing critical state response in situ, and integrating rheological considerations into vane shear testing. Yasmin actively collaborates with industry and academia to advance in situ testing methodologies and is a member of the ICOLD working group for the piezometer vane (VSTu). She holds a degree in Mining Engineering and is committed to improving in situ testing of weak rock masses while effectively communicating complex geotechnical data.

Dr. Yanzhi (Alex) Wang is a Research Associate at UNSW Sydney and a Geotechnical Engineer at Stantec. His expertise encompasses soil mechanics, constitutive modelling of soil behaviour, static liquefaction of mine tailings, and unsaturated soil mechanics. He also has extensive experience in laboratory geotechnical testing, including saturated and unsaturated triaxial tests, cone penetration tests in calibration chambers, and tests characterizing the soil-water retention curve (SWRC), such as pressure plate tests, dew-point tests, and filter paper tests. As an engineer, he has been actively involved in a variety of projects, including the design of Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs), slope stability assessments, pile capacity calculations, and site investigations.

Jiajun graduated from South China University of Technology with a Bachelor of Engineering in 2007, and a Master of Engineering in 2010, and has more recently completed a Doctor of Philosophy (Civil Engineering) at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. Jiajun has over 9 years of experience and has been involved in a wide range of geotechnical projects both in Australia and overseas including experience in geotechnical investigation, geotechnical analysis and design, geotechnical laboratory and field testing, landslide risk assessment, and construction support.

Currently working as a Research Fellow at the School of Civil Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Western Australia.

Registered Professional Engineer in Queensland since 2018 with significant experience providing geotechnical consulting services to large mining projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Spain, Colombia and Brazil. Experience includes the use of fore-front large-deformation numerical modelling skills to simulate the failure of the Brumadinho Dam in Brazil; Marcelo's failure model using material point method (MPM) techniques was included in one of the expert panel’s reports. Marcelo participated in a third-party review for the recovery work required for remediation at the Cadia dam failure in Australia. He has been involved in multiple dam safety reviews, third-party reviews, site investigations, GISTM compliance and gap assessments for many tailings and water retention structures. Marcelo has published and/or presented more than 40 papers in international conferences and journals, and his work has received over 300 citations. He's served as a reviewer for various papers published in international conferences and journals.