Prof Malek Bouazza

Dr A (Malek) Bouazza is a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He engages extensively with industry and regularly conducts peer reviews, third-party reviews and expert consultation for containment-system engineering projects such as landfills, mining waste containment facilities, heap leach pads, shale/coal gas recovery ponds, pit thermal energy storage facilities, industry process liquid ponds or similar, and cases subject to litigations. He has led and co-wrote the key liner components of the landfill standard (Best Practice Environmental Management: Siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of landfills, EPA Publication 788) for the State of Victoria, Australia, which is now used as a model for much of the country.  He is the immediate past chair of the ISSMGE Technical Committee TC 215 on Environmental Geotechnics and the founding chair of the IGS TC on barriers. His research has been recognised by several awards, including the IGS Award (twice) for outstanding contribution to advances in the scientific and engineering developments of geosynthetics, the Telford Premium Prize (twice) from the Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K., the R.M. Quigley Award (twice) from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, the E.H. Davis Memorial Lecture Award from the Australian Geomechanics Society, and the IGS Plaque for significant contributions to the International Geosynthetics Society and outstanding technical contributions to the geosynthetics discipline. He has presented prestigious named lectures, including the Zeng Guoxi Lecture (2014), the AGS Davis Lecture (2016) and the 3rd ISSMGE honour lecture on Environmental Geotechnics (3rd Kerry Rowe Lecture, 2022,2023). He was named in 2021 as an Honorary Life Member of the Australasian Chapter of IGS (ACigs) in recognition of the significant contribution he has made in supporting the geosynthetics profession, in 2022 he was presented with the IGS chapter service award in recognition of his exceptional service and achievement at the chapter level as well as internationally and in 2023 the Australasian Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society created the Malek Bouazza Lecture to honour his achievements and contributions to the technical advancement of geosynthetics in Australasia and beyond. The lecture is to be presented at all GeoANZ conferences on Geosynthetics.

This short course is designed to provide the most recent findings from research and the state-of-practice to experts and novices on geosynthetics in waste containment barrier systems with a particular focus on their interactions with emerging contaminants such as poly and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Following an overall introduction, the course then focuses on providing insight into the fate and migration of PFASs in geosynthetic clay liners, geomembranes and geotextiles and the corresponding impact on the design of lining systems to mitigate the escape of PFASs into the environment.