2025 SPEAKERS

Gabriele Scarascia Mugnozza (MSc in Geology and PhD in Earth Sciences) is a Professor of Engineering Geology at the Department of Earth Sciences of "Sapienza" University of Rome.
His scientific activity is demonstrated by about 120 publications in international and national scientific journals, as well as monographs and numerous international and national conference proceedings. He has held invited conferences at the universities of Kyoto, Waterloo (Canada), Potsdam, Nancy and Grenoble on issues related to the assessment of landslide and seismic hazard and the assessment of geological risk in the construction of large-scale works.
He served as Vice-Rector from 2014 to 2020 and was President of the Major Risks Commission from 2017 to 2023.
Previously, he was Director of the Department of Earth Sciences (2010–2016), while he currently is Head of the CERI Research Center for the Prevention and Control of Geological Risks at Sapienza University of Rome.

Dr. Hlepas leads the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Geotechnical, Geology, and Materials Community of Practice and is the proponent for USACE Instrumentation and Performance Monitoring.  She has 17 years of experience working as a geotechnical engineering on a variety of large projects including dams, levees, and confined disposal facilities.  Dr. Hlepas has focused much of her career on advancing the instrumentation and performance monitoring state-of-practice including updating engineering guidance, performing reviews of Instrumentation and Monitoring Programs, and leading the effort to implement an enterprise-level instrumentation data management system.  She has developed and taught multiple instrumentation and performance monitoring courses and workshops and has authored numerous papers on both geotechnical investigations and instrumentation topics. 

Dr. Hlepas was the chairperson the US Society of Dams (USSD) Monitoring of Dams and Their Foundations Committee for several years and is a member of multiple professional organizations.  She has a master’s degree in civil engineering from Columbia University in New York, a doctorate degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Illinois.

Martin Derby, VP of Oil and Gas Client Programs/Technical Fellow - Geohazards at WSP and has over 40 years of experience in subsurface exploration, monitoring/pipeline subsidence, slope monitoring, geohazard analysis & geotechnical design for soil stabilization.
Martin is the Chair of the Association of Geohazard Professionals - Monitoring & Instrumentation and is also a committee member of the Integrity/Geohazards group of the Interstate Gas Association of America (INGAA).
Martin received his civil engineering technology degree from Hudson Valley Community College, his bachelor’s in geology from the University at Buffalo, and his master’s in geoscience from Montclair State University.
Martin has co-authored eight published papers on geohazard identification, monitoring and slope mitigation in the past nine years and is a professional licensed geologist in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Alaska. International speaker on the impacts of geohazards on pipeline infrastructure/monitoring techniques with countries that include Argentina (Buenos Aires); Canada (Calgary); Italy (University of Rome); Peru (Lima); Scotland (Edinburgh), Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), and various cities in the United States.

Paolo Mazzanti (MSc in Geology and PhD in Earth Sciences) is Professor of Remote Sensing at the Department of Earth Sciences of “Sapienza” University of Rome and Co-founder of NHAZCA S.r.l., Startup Sapienza University of Rome. Paolo is the organizer and scientific leader of several international courses including the annual “International Course on Geotechnical and Structural Monitoring” that, in the last 8 years, attracted more than 700 people from 60 countries and 50 partners.
Paolo is responsible of consulting projects concerning tunnels, oil & gas, dams, open mines, large transportations infrastructures and landslides for National and International firms and agencies, in 10 countries. Paolo is member of the TRB (Transportation Research Board) Engineering Geology Committee and of the informal FMGM (Field Measurement in Geomechanics) committee and associated with several scientific associations (e.g. ISHMII, AIGA).
Paolo tutored and co-tutored more than 30 MSc and PhD theses in Engineering Geology, Civil Engineering and Remote Sensing and has been invited lecturer at several International Universities and Research Centers (e.g. Italy, France, UK, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Germany, USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Belgium).
Paolo is author of about 100 scientific papers in international journals and conference proceedings concerning the following topics: a) engineering geology (landslides, subsidences, settlements, snow avalanches); b) geological remote sensing; c) geotechnical and structural monitoring; d) monitoring by ground based and satellite radar; e) monitoring of civil structures and infrastructures, including cultural heritages; f) geotechnical assets management.

Tony Simmonds serves on the Geokon Board of Directors at Geokon Inc, Lebanon, NH, USA, a manufacturer of geotechnical instrumentation, where he worked for almost 40 years.
He graduated from Portsmouth University, in the UK, in 1979 with an honors degree in Engineering Geology and Geotechnics, and moved to the US to further his career in 1981.

Among the many projects in which Tony has been involved, some of the most notable include the Three Gorges Dam (China), the Petronas Twin Towers (KL, Malaysia), Itaipu Dam (Paraguay/Brazil), the Central Artery Project (Boston USA) and the Potzdamer Platz (Berlin, Germany).
Tony is an active member of the TRB (Transportation Research Board), DFI (Deep Foundations Institute), USSD (US Society Dam Safety) and is a Life Member of ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers).

Vanessa Bateman, PG, PE, D.GE is currently the Chief of Civil Works Engineering, Engineering & Construction Division at the US Army Corps of Engineers.  She previously served as the Principle Geotechnical Engineer for USACE as the Geotechnical, Geology and Materials Community of Practice lead. She has 25+ years in the field of geology and geotechnical engineering working at both the Tennessee Department of Transportation and at USACE with a wide background in geotechnics and geotechnical data management with particular interests in rock slope engineering, instrumentation, grouting, karst and dam safety working on many large projects such as the US 64 Ocoee River Rockslide, I-24 Rockslide,  Wolf Creek Dam Barrier Wall, Center Hill Dam Barrier Wall and Stability Berm, Mosul Dam Foundation Grouting, Chickamauga Lock, Kentucky Lock, as well as major transportation infrastructure.  

She has been extensively involved in Rockfall assessment and mitigation starting from early in her career working on the development of Tennessee Department of Transportations first Rockfall Inventory and as the lead for the Rockfall Program at TDOT.  She’s had a particular interest in instrumentation to monitor and assess landslides, rockfall sites, dams, locks and other large infrastructure with a long term interest in innovation.  She has been highly involved in construction, instrumentation and geotechnical data management starting with the Rockfall Management program at the State of Tennessee as well as on major dam safety modification projects at USACE starting with Wolf Creek Dam Barrier Wall project. She has a BS in Geology from Middle Tennessee State University as well as a BS and MS in Geological Engineering from the University of Idaho. She is Professional Geologist and Professional Engineer registered in the state of Tennessee and is a D.GE (Diplomate, Geotechnical Engineering) with the ASCE.

Werner Lienhart is Full Professor and Head of the Institute of Engineering Geodesy and Measurement Systems (IGMS) at Graz University of Technology, Austria. Prior to this position, he was Product Manager Innovation at Leica Geosystems at the Headquarter in Switzerland.
He has more than 20 years of experience in the monitoring of civil engineering structures using geodetic, geotechnical and fibre optic sensors. Prof. Lienhart has published more than 140 papers and holds several patents. He is President of the Austrian Geodetic Commission (OeGK) and President of the International Society for Structural Health Monitoring of Intelligent Infrastructure (ISHMII).
Furthermore, Prof. Lienhart is co-founder of ACI Monitoring, a company specialized in fibre optic sensing in civil engineering and geotechnical applications.