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Professor Nielen van der MerweHis leadership qualities are demonstrated by the fact t hat he was the last President of the South African National Group on Rock M echanics (SANGORM) and following reconstruction, the first of the South Afr ican National Institute of Rock Engineering (SANIRE). In this capacity, he served as the Vice President for Africa of the International Society of Roc k Mechanics (ISRM).
He continued promoting South Africa on the intern ational rock stability landscape by becoming President of the ISRM (the fir st from Africa), and then President of the Federation of International Geo- Engineering Societies FeDIGS). He has been awarded Fellowship of the ISRM a nd is Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering.
He was Head of Mining Engineering at the University of Pretoria and until recently he was a Visiting Professor at the School of Mining Engineering at the Univers ity of the Witwatersrand. To him, the most interesting part of rock enginee ring is to move beyond the simple concept of a safety factor, and rather ba se designs around the concept of time related failure probability. He curre ntly operates in consultancy on a limited scale.
On a personal note, it is almost as if Prof Nielen was destined for a career in rock Engineerin g, with minimum input from himself. He was born in the mining village of th e Durnacol mine (Dannhauser). Then his paternal grandfather was killed in a FOR (Fall Of Rock) accident followed by serious injury in another FOR to h is new grandfather. One of his friends was killed in a FOR on a gold mine a nd another suffered life-changing injury. He enrolled as a mining student b ecause they offered the best bursaries and decided to concentrate on rock e ngineering because it fascinated him. It was only after his decision to stu dy rock engineering that he became aware of this mining background driven b y fate.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
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Professor Nie
len van der MerweHis leadership qualities are de monstrated by the fact that he was the last President of the South African National Group on Rock Mechanics (SANGORM) and following reconstruction, th e first of the South African National Institute of Rock Engineering (SANIRE ). In this capacity, he served as the Vice President for Africa of the Inte rnational Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM).
He continued promoting So uth Africa on the international rock stability landscape by becoming Presid ent of the ISRM (the first from Africa), and then President of the Federati on of International Geo-Engineering Societies FeDIGS). He has been awarded Fellowship of the ISRM and is Fellow of the South African Academy of Engine ering.
He was Head of Mining Engineering at the University of Pretori a and until recently he was a Visiting Professor at the School of Mining En gineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. To him, the most interest ing part of rock engineering is to move beyond the simple concept of a safe ty factor, and rather base designs around the concept of time related failu re probability. He currently operates in consultancy on a limited scale.
On a personal note, it is almost as if Prof Nielen was destined for a c areer in rock Engineering, with minimum input from himself. He was born in the mining village of the Durnacol mine (Dannhauser). Then his paternal gra ndfather was killed in a FOR (Fall Of Rock) accident followed by serious in jury in another FOR to his new grandfather. One of his friends was killed i n a FOR on a gold mine and another suffered life-changing injury. He enroll ed as a mining student because they offered the best bursaries and decided to concentrate on rock engineering because it fascinated him. It was only a fter his decision to study rock engineering that he became aware of this mi ning background driven by fate.
WH O SHOULD ATTEND
