Welcome to our new committee members
Liam Wotherspoon
University of Auckland
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland. I have held an academic position in the department since 2009 and have taught a number of different geotechnical engineering courses. My research cuts across a range of geotechnical engineering topic areas, and I look to develop research that can be both translated to practice and informed by the needs of the profession. I have strong links with the profession, through research collaborations with a range of organisations and input into a number of consulting projects, particularly with a focus on site characterisation. At a regional and national level, I have been involved in the development of resources to inform land use planning and seismic design. I have worked with NZGS to develop industry best-practice documents and provide industry short courses. I volunteered for this role on the committee as I want to contribute to advancing the aims of the society by leveraging my position at the interface between academia and the profession. As the needs of the profession and the way we do work changes, this interface has become more important. I want to support the development of the activities that NZGS supports and the broader role of NZGS, feeding the needs of the profession back into the development of the next crop of geotechnical engineers.
Sam Glue
Beca
Sam is a chartered geotechnical engineer with over 16 years experience across the Pacific,
New Zealand and Australia and is a team leader with Beca based in Christchurch. He has experience across a wide range of projects from optimising small house developments to major infrastructure projects and specialises in seismic design, soil-structure interaction and finite element/difference analysis for major retaining walls, seawalls, bridge abutments, slope stabilisation and foundations.
Sam is passionate about innovation and advancing the geotechnical industry in New Zealand and has been heavily involved with NZGS since 2015 across branch coordinator, technical development and YGP conference organisation roles. He joined the NZGS management committee in September 2022.
Outside of work Sam enjoys the outdoors with his snowboarding, mountain biking and big walks with his dogs, Bear (Old English Sheepdog) and Thundercub (Boxer/Border Collie cross).
