Byron Byrne BE(Hons) BCom DPhil FREng FICE

Professor Byron Byrne holds the Ørsted / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Advanced Geotechnical Design at Oxford. He is also Professor of Engineering Science in Civil Engineering and a Fellow at St Catherine’s College. He is a Co-Investigator for the EPSRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures and a Co-Director of the EPSRC Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub. From 2014 to 2022 he was the Oxford Director for the EPSRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Renewable Energy Marine Structures. He is an Associate of the Geotechnical Consulting Group in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Civil Engineers. 

Growing up in rural Western Australia, Byron went to school in Esperance before moving to Perth to complete degrees in Civil Engineering and Commerce at the University of Western Australia. He came across to Oxford University in 1996 as a Rhodes Scholar to study for a doctorate in Engineering, after which he continued as a postdoctoral Research Fellow funded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. During that period he was also a College Lecturer in Engineering Science and a ‘Prize Fellow’ at Magdalen College. In 2001 he took up a Departmental Lecturership in the Engineering Department and continued as an Official Fellow at Magdalen College in a bursarial role (being responsible for the Oxford Science Park). In October 2005 he was appointed to a University Lecturership in Engineering Science with a Tutorial Fellowship at St Catherine's College. In July 2014 he was awarded the title of Professor of Engineering Science by the University and in 2018 he was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair. Prior to starting his graduate studies in Oxford, he worked in research at UWA and Oxford as well as a short period for the consultancy firm Advanced Geomechanics.

Outside of academia, Byron is interested in cricket and played for Oxford whilst a student gaining four Blues (1997 to 2000). He is also a playing member of the MCC and of Abingdon Vale Cricket Club. Previously, he played A Grade WACA cricket in Western Australia, as well as a two year stint in the Birmingham League.

Byron is a Director of the The Oxford Science Park, having been involved with the management and development of the Park since mid-2002. The Oxford Science Park is majority owned and developed by Magdalen College, Oxford, in strategic partnership with an affiliate of global investor GIC, with the aim of providing high-quality accommodation in an attractive environment for science and technology based companies of all sizes.

Professor Byrne’s research on offshore geotechnical engineering problems is stimulated by the industry, involving experimental and theoretical research into soil-structure interaction problems, funded through long-running industry collaborations. Experimental work, at laboratory scale and larger scale in the field, inform new theoretical developments through to practical design guidance. Professor Byrne is an expert in the design of offshore foundations, including suction installed caisson foundations, monopile foundations and jacket pile foundations. His work has been applied to numerous constructed offshore wind farms in the UK. Recent highlights include: 

• In 2011, Byron gave the Géotechnique Lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers on “Foundation design for offshore wind turbines”, summarising the work carried out at Oxford. A copy of the slides can be found here.
• In 2013, he was awarded a contract as PI, following a competitive tender process, to lead the academic contributions to the PISA (PIle Soil Analysis) JIP led by DONG Energy and involving the Carbon Trust, Alstom, EDF, RWE, SSE, Scottish Power, Statkraft, Statoil, Vattenfall and van Ord. A team from Oxford, Imperial College London and University College Dublin have developed new design methods for laterally loaded large diameter monopiles for offshore wind turbines. The final reports were submitted in early-to-mid 2016 to the industrial funding partners. The PISA Project won the BGA's Fleming Award in 2017. A second phase of work, exploring pile response in layered soils, was completed in February 2018. Byron received a University Impact award for this work.
• In 2014, the team were awarded a contract by EPSRC, in collaboration with Cranfield University, to develop a Centre for Doctoral Training in Renewable Energy Marine Structures, for which Byron was the Oxford Director. This has been followed in 2019 with a contract to develop a Centre for Doctoral Training in Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures collaboratively with Strathclyde and Edinburgh Universities.
• In 2018, the University signed a research framework agreement with Ørsted, the renewable energy company, to focus on the development of new design guidelines for offshore wind turbine foundations. Ørsted and the Royal Academy of Engineering are supporting Byron's Research Chair in Advanced Geotechnical Design. These activities are ongoing.
• See youtube video of the Jenkin Lecture given in 2018 on "Engineering Design for Offshore Wind"
• Since 2018 Byron has been a Co-Director of the EPSRC Supergen ORE Hub, providing national leadership for UK research into offshore renewable energy.

Other work involves offshore pipeline design including in pipeline installation, axial friction response, upheaval buckling, lateral buckling, soil liquefaction, thermal response of pipelines in clay, pipeline flotation and steel catenary riser behaviour at the touchdown zone. Byron has a long-running collaboration with TechnipFMC Ltd. Previous work has been funded by EPSRC and the SAFEBUCK JIP whilst work on axial pipe response has been funded by KW Subsea/Petrofac.

Byron has also developed a theme of work on instrumentation and monitoring for onshore infrastructure construction in collaboration with Ward and Burke Construction. This has focused on using real-time feedback of live construction data to inform construction processes, coupled with the analysis of monitored data to improved design.

Byron has been a member of the Editorial Board for Applied Ocean Research, Géotechnique and Géotechnique Letters. His research has been sponsored by the EPSRC, the DTI, the Royal Society of London and a variety of industrial sponsors. 

Byron is available for a range of consultancy work in civil, geotechnical and offshore engineering through Oxford University Consulting. Previous work has included desk studies through to managing, performing and interpreting complex laboratory, model and field testing programs.

End clients have included Arup, Atkins, Cathie Associates, Carbon Trust, Ørsted, KW Subsea, Repsol Nuevas Energias UK, Statoil Subsea 7, TotalEnergies and Technip Offshore UK Ltd.