engineering

Kerry Rowe

Kerry Rowe is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kerry Rowe rather than just read about it. In short: Ronald Kerry Rowe (born 13 September 1951) is a Canadian civil engineer of Australian birth, one of the pioneers of geosynthetics. Education Rowe was educated at Fort Street High School, Sydney (1964-1969) and the University of Sydney, where he was awarded a BSc (Computer Science) in 1973, BE (First Hons, Civil Engineering) and the University Medal in 1975, a PhD in 1979 and D.Eng in 1993.

Key takeaways

Kerry Rowe belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kerry Rowe to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kerry Rowe from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ronald Kerry Rowe (born 13 September 1951) is a Canadian civil engineer of Australian birth, one of the pioneers of geosynthetics.

Education

Rowe was educated at Fort Street High School, Sydney (1964-1969) and the University of Sydney, where he was awarded a BSc (Computer Science) in 1973, BE (First Hons, Civil Engineering) and the University Medal in 1975, a PhD in 1979 and D.Eng in 1993.

Career and research Rowe worked as a geotechnical engineer with the Australian Government Department of Construction prior to emigrating to Canada in 1978, where he spent 22 years as a professor, including 8 years as Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. From 2000 to 2010, he served as Vice-Principal (Research) at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario where he was responsible for the administration of all research (in Business, Education, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Physical and Biological Sciences, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Health Sciences and Medicine). He is presently (2023) a Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen's. His research has covered contaminant migration through soil and rock, landfill design, containment of contaminated sites, geosynthetics (including geotextiles, geomembranes, geogrids, geonets etc.), tailings storage facilities and dams, reinforced embankments and walls, tunnels in soft ground and the failure of slopes and excavations. In particular he has researched the effectiveness of plastic (geomembrane) liners and geosynthetic clay liners (a composite material incorporating clay) that limit contamination from mining operations and waste disposal facilities. He is a past President of the International Geosynthetics Society, the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the Engineering Institute of Canada. In 2012, the ISSMGE and Technical Committee 215 created the "R. Kerry Rowe Lecture" to honor Prof. Rowe's contributions to Environmental Geotechnics and his academic accomplishments. This distinguished lecture is delivered during the opening plenary session of the International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG) and the International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE).

Publications Google Scholar - Kerry Rowe

Honours and awards 2001: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada 2004: Killam Prize, awarded by the Canada Council 2005: Rankine Lecture to the British Geotechnical Association 2010: International Fellow, UK Royal Academy of Engineering 2012: Sir John Kennedy Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada 2013: Fellow of the Royal Society of London, UK 2014: Thomas Telford Gold Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers 2015: Miroslaw Romanowski Medal of the Royal Society of Canada 2016: Member of the National Academy of Engineering 2018: Officer of the Order of Canada 2018: International Geosynthetics Society Award and Gold Medal 2020: Elected Distinguished Member American Society of Civil Engineers 2022: Inaugural winner of the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kerry Rowe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kerry Rowe claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kerry Rowe before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kerry Rowe ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kerry Rowe

In research: Kerry Rowe appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kerry Rowe in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kerry Rowe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario, Australian emigrants to Canada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kerry Rowe outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kerry Rowe in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kerry Rowe means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kerry Rowe out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kerry Rowe in simple terms?

Ronald Kerry Rowe (born 13 September 1951) is a Canadian civil engineer of Australian birth, one of the pioneers of geosynthetics. Education Rowe was educated at Fort Street High School, Sydney (1964-1969) and the University of Sydney, where he was awarded a BSc (Computer Science) in 1973, BE (Firs…

Why does Kerry Rowe matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kerry Rowe?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kerry Rowe.