Dr. Wijewickreme joined the UBC Civil Engineering Department in January 2001. His general field of specialty is geotechnical engineering with specific expertise in the fields of earthquake geotechnical engineering and pipeline geotechnical engineering. Dr. Wijewickreme received his Ph.D. and M.A.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1990 and 1986, respectively.  Immediately prior to joining UBC, Dr. Wijewickreme served in the geotechnical consulting practice in British Columbia, Canada, where he acquired some 11 years of industry experience in the fields of seismic design and pipeline geotechnical engineering.
 
Dr. Wijewickreme pioneered the establishment of new Pipeline Integrity Institute (PII) at UBC in 2015 with industry funding, and is the Co-Director of the institute.  He has received numerous awards, including the Horst Leipholz Medal of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (2013) for outstanding contributions to engineering mechanics research and practice, the Canadian Geotechnical Journal's Editor's Choice Award (2011), and is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.  He was the President of the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) for the two year term (2017-2018), and he also served as the Vice President Finance of the CGS between 2013 and 2017.
 
"Soil: the abundant, recyclable construction material on earth. Next time you build, think geotechnical!"
     - Dharma Wijewickreme, March 30, 2010

Soil-Pipeline Physical Modeling at UBC ASPIRe^TM Facility

Pipeline Subject to Ground Movement at a Reverse Thrust Seismic Fault Crossing