Professor Nielen van der Merwe presents SANIRE’s first video lecture.  Nielen is a past SANIRE President and a past president of the ISRM, the only South African to achieve this honour.  Nielen is also a past president of the SAIMM and the Federation of International Geo‐Engineering Societies amongst many other honours.  He has made great contributions to rock engineering education through his roles as Professor, Centennial Chair for Rock Engineering, Wits and head of the Mining department at Tukkies.  Prior to this, Nielen was the programme manager for CSIR Mining Technology and the Group head of Rock mechanics SASOL.  Nielen has published numerous papers and made a major contribution to our fraternity, particularly in the field of coal rock mechanics.  More recently Nielen has taken an interest in variability and risk in rock engineering, a new and important field, which is the subject of this video lecture.
The lecture is entitled “Getting a Grip on Reality in Rock Engineering”