Dr. Andrew Lees

Dr Andrew Lees joined Tensar in 2016 as Senior Application Technology Manager for Tensar International with responsibility for advanced design and analysis methods including finite element analysis (FEA). He has developed new design and analysis approaches for crane platforms, railroad foundations, roads and MSE walls that capture the benefits of mechanical stabilization in a more accurate way, leading to more economical designs.

He graduated in Civil Engineering at the University of Southampton in 1996, where he also obtained a PhD in the fields of centrifuge modelling and FEA of soil-structure interaction in 2000.

He then practised as a geotechnical engineer at Mouchel International until 2004 when he took up a geotechnical engineering lectureship at Frederick University, Cyprus until 2015. In 2007, he also set up Geofem – a consultancy specialising in geotechnical FEA and satellite data analysis.

He is a member of the NAFEMS Geotechnical Working Group and authored their first guidebook on obtaining parameters for numerical analysis and is a founding member of the Professional Simulation Engineer scheme administered by NAFEMS. He also authored the popular textbook on geotechnical FEA published by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2016. He was a member of the redrafting panel for Eurocode 7 which will become the first geotechnical design code covering advanced analysis methods.

He also presents Tensar’s award-winning vlog Ground Coffee.