Committee

Kevin Burgess

Over the past 40 years, Kevin Burgess has worked in consultancy on coastal engineering and shoreline management projects in technical and senior management roles at Halcrow, CH2M and now Jacobs. His technical experience covers strategic coastal planning and coastal process analysis, development and appraisal of sustainable engineering approaches and detailed design.

Kevin has contributed to several technical publications, provided guidance to the industry, from site-specific to national-level assessment, and has been a regular speaker at national and international conferences. He has served as chair of this conference since 2017, having been a member of the organising committee since 1998.

Nadia Genovese

Nadia Genovese is a Chartered Engineer in both the UK and Italy, with extensive international experience in coastal and maritime engineering. She began her career with COWI in early 2007, working within the coastal and maritime division across Denmark, the UAE, Qatar, the US and the UK.

Having joined the NIRAS UK coastal and maritime team in 2025, Nadia continues to apply her expertise in the design of rubble mound structures using rock and concrete elements. Her project experience includes revetments for ports and harbours, coastal protection schemes, beach developments and waterfront infrastructure. She is experienced in the preparation and delivery of 2D and 3D physical model testing, from specification through to supervision and analysis of results.

Nadia has a particular interest in the design of intake and outfall systems, including weirs, pipelines, diffusers and other hydraulic structures. Throughout her career, she has contributed to the development of standardised tools and methodologies.

William Allsop

William Allsop advises ARC Marine on coastal engineering, with a particular focus on improving biodiversity. Previously, he led his own consultancy and served as technical director for maritime structures at HR Wallingford, where he was responsible for optimisation and design of breakwaters, sea walls, revetments and other shoreline structures. 

His experience includes supervising laboratory testing in the UK and internationally, as well as advisory roles on major LNG terminals, the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate and hurricane-related coastal bridge damage in the US. He has also recently supported the development of a new hydraulics laboratory in Torquay.

William has a long-term interest in historic breakwaters around the UK, cemented by his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where he is an honorary professor. His research has been included in major handbooks and standards, and published in ICE journals. 

Philip Barber

Phil’s career spans 50 years commencing in a Local Authority in 1966. Following chartered status in 1973, the career focus has been on coastal engineering and coastal processes. A return to University in 1976 for a Masters's Degree was followed by a PhD. in 1981 where the research was on the local Authority's coastal process problems.

In 1984 a move was made to National Maritime Institute (later BMT) before setting up in private practice in 1989. Key achievements include the invention of the ‘fishtail breakwater’, the early use of mixed beach nourishment using quarried and marine sources, the development of a measurement system for the surf zone, the determination of monitoring protocols to satisfy environmental requirements in sensitive areas and the integration of sediment transport models with monitoring to optimise confidence in the forecasting of the estuary and coastal evolution.

Recent work has focussed on understanding the evolution of nearshore bank and channel systems using inductive modelling to consider impacts on shoreline evolution and management and the use of single-layer rock armour and rolled concrete in coastal defences.    

Caroline Barford

Caroline Barford is a civil engineer with 20 years’ experience in the maritime sector within local government in the Portsmouth area. She began her career at Portsmouth International Port, including client supervision of the construction of the Spinnaker Tower, before moving into coastal engineering.

She has worked across the full construction cycle from identification of works and procurement to construction, maintenance and emergency works. Her roles have included coastal asset management and leading coastal flood response in partnership with emergency planners.

Caroline was the client NEC supervisor for the initial three phases of the Southsea Coastal Scheme, including the Southsea Castle to Speaker’s Corner frontage, which won the inaugural Sir John Armitt Prize at the 2025 British Construction and Infrastructure Awards.

She has been with Coastal Partners since its inception as a local-authority shared service for coastal works in south-east Hampshire, where she supports the delivery of community-focused coastal protection projects.

Professor Tom Bruce

In addition to his role as College of Science and Engineering Dean International Students, Tom Bruce is Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Tom’s background is in fluid mechanics, with particular focus on coastal engineering. He has been active in research on wave overtopping since the late 1990s.

Many of his team’s outputs are now integrated within the European Wave Overtopping Manual, or EurOtop, which is the standard engineering guidance on the topic for many European countries and used worldwide. In his teaching, Tom specialises in fluid mechanics and sustainable energy

Simon Burchett

Simon Burchett is a Chartered Engineer with more than 25 years’ experience in the coastal, waterfront, maritime, fluvial and flood-risk sectors, delivering projects worldwide for a wide range of clients under various contract types. His experience covers the full project lifecycle – from due diligence, site reconnaissance and planning, and modelling studies, to the design and construction of projects, including port/terminal, power, infrastructure, coast/flood protection and waterfront developments.

Simon is a member of the British Standards Institute committee responsible for BS 6349: Maritime works. He is also a UK expert for the preparation of a new Eurocode covering coastal structures and a co-author of PIANC international marina design guidance.

Amber Carr

Experienced Construction Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working within the construction industry. I have just joined Mackleys and will be working on the Pevensey Coastal Defence Project. Looking forward taking on a new direction within the Marine civil sector.

I have recently worked within the domestic refurbishment sector, and over the last 10 years I have been involved in the civils sector primarily for Southen Water and South East Water carrying out drainage, utilies and concrete works.

I have also worked on various Rail projects around London for key rail contractors on UTX projects as well as commerical refurbishments.

I can adapt to all environments and have cross sector skills. Ability to work with all stakeholders and consider myself to be a key communicator inorder to get the project completed on time, in budget and delivering a quality project.

Project Estimation and Safety Management Systems. Organising labour and resources materials.

Jesper Damgaard

Jesper Damgaard is an ICE Fellow and Chartered Engineer with senior port and marine engineering experience at HR Wallingford, Worley Parsons, COWI and SMEC. A specialist in hydrodynamics and sediment transport, he has been involved as a consultant in large marine infrastructure projects including Tanjung Priok port expansion, Jebel Ali Container Terminal 3, Ras Laffan Port and Schiehallion deepwater oil field.  

Over the past decade he has worked on a range of international financial institution-funded projects and is currently engaged as a maritime infrastructure expert for the Asian Development Bank, supporting the delivery of port projects in the Pacific region.

Early in his career, Jesper undertook extensive scientific research, authoring or co-authoring 14 peer-reviewed journal papers and more than 30 conference papers. He has also chaired and presented at numerous scientific and industry conferences.

Dr. Aggelos Dimakopoulos

Aggelos Dimakopoulos is an Assistant Professor at the University of Patras and a consultant to Jacobs UK, with extensive international experience in coastal, hydraulic, and marine engineering. He began his career in academia, earning his MEng, MSc, and PhD at Patras before conducting postdoctoral research at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, specializing in 3D numerical models for coastal turbulent flows.

Having spent more than a decade in the UK industry (HR Wallingford, Jacobs) before returning to academia, Aggelos applies his expertise to the design of complex coastal and marine infrastructure. His project experience includes leading hydrodynamic designs and advanced modelling applications for major international schemes, such as marine cooling water systems in the UK, Australia and the Middle East, coastal and inland flood management infrastructure projects in the UK, Asia and the Middle East, and coastal defence schemes in Europe and North America. He is highly experienced in the application of advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate wave interaction with coastal and offshore structures.

Aggelos has a particular interest in wave structure interaction applications, the hydraulics of marine energy systems, vessel hydraulics, and the impact of flows on coastal vegetation. Throughout his career, he has contributed to the development and implementation of advanced numerical modeling methodologies to protect coastal environments and optimize maritime infrastructure. Aggelos is currently chartered with the ICE and is a consultant to Jacobs.

Miguel Esteban

Miguel Esteban is a professor in the faculty of science and engineering at Waseda University, Tokyo. He received a PhD in coastal engineering from Yokohama National University in 2007 and continued his work in this field with post-doctoral fellowships at Kyoto University and the UN University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability.

Esteban, who also served as an associate professor at both Waseda and the University of Tokyo, has contributed to more than 150 journal papers on a range of subjects.

Simon Everitt

Simon is a technical director with HR Wallingford and chaired the panel CB/502/-/17 which provided the consolidated UK response to the CEN enquiry in July 2024 and is now working on the UK National Annex to EN1991-1-8.

Simon and Adrian will summarise the status of the Eurocode EN1991-1-8 Actions from waves and currents on coastal structures which was prepared by a CEN-TC250 working group (SC1/WG6) and along with updates to parts of EN1990-1 Basis of Design for application to coastal structures.  Simon and Adrian will explain how the UK national Annexes to the new Eurocodes are being developed and highlight some key issues and challenges.

Leopoldo Franco

Leopoldo was full professor of Coastal Engineering at the University of Rome 3, Italy until retirement in nov 2025 (formerly at Polytechnic of Milan 1987-96), also within the new course of Ocean Engineering at Ostia.

For over 40 years he carried out advanced field measurements, laboratory investigations and mathematical models within national and EU funded projects (eg.MAST-PROVERBS-DELOS-CLASH-FLOODSITE) in maritime hydraulics and coastal structures described in over 230 technical-scientific papers and manuals.

Research topics include wave overtopping at breakwaters, caissons, wave analysis and prediction, shoreline modelling, hydraulic design of breakwater, harbours and marinas, history of maritime engineering. He is PIANC delegate and consultant-designer at MODIMAR, Rome for various projects of ports and breakwaters in Italy and abroad. Attended all ICE-Breakwaters conferences since 1985. He acted as chairman for ICCE2024 in Rome.

Mark Glennerster

Mark Glennerster is an ICE Fellow with over 38 years’ experience in coastal and marine structures. He provides technical advice to consultants, clients and contractors on topics from conceptual design to contract-related problems.

Mark has worked on breakwaters exposed to cyclones and typhoons, including the design and physical modelling of structures in these challenging conditions. He brings a holistic approach to projects, with extensive knowledge of construction techniques and health and safety issues. He is experienced in the design and assessment of rock rubble mound, concrete armoured and caisson breakwaters in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Carl Green

Carl Green has more than 30 years’ experience in the design, construction and operation of coastal defences, working for consultancies and the Environment Agency before taking up his current role at Wyre Council. He is responsible for the delivery and maintenance of coastal schemes in the district and leads the council’s emergency-response team.  

Having already delivered more than £120m-worth of projects for the borough, Carl is implementing a £52m beach and dune management programme. He is also leading a flood and coast innovation project.

An ICE member and a royal engineering officer in the Army Reserve, Carl chairs the North West and North Wales Coastal Group.

Bas Hofland

Bas holds an MSc and PhD degree from Delft University of Technology. Bas has been active inresearch, advice, and modelling of coastal and hydraulic structures since 1999. This work has been done both in an academic environment, as well as in a more applied environment at Deltares. He is experienced in coastal engineering, as well as many aspects of fluid mechanics, like turbulence and wave dynamics. Over the years he was involved in teaching and knowledge transfer by giving courses and lectures, by guiding MSc and PhD students, and by publishing regularly. He has been involved in consulting and research work involving the development and application of the latest design practices.

He evaluated, and made designs for, many Dutch coastal structures (e.g., Maasvlakte 2, IJmuiden, Eemshaven, Afsluitdijk), as well as many structures abroad (e.g., Russia, Middle East, Australia). The main tool he applied for this advisory work is physical modelling, which he also developed further. He contributed to manuals like the Rock Manual and EurOtop manual. Moreover, he was involved in the design of modelling facilities (including the Delta Flume), and the development of measurement techniques.

Jim Hutchison

Jim Hutchison is a Chartered Civil Engineer and ICE Fellow with over 35 years’ experience in flood and coastal risk management. He has worked in both the public and private sectors, including senior leadership positions with Defra and the Environment Agency (EA), and has been with Balfour Beatty UK for the past 12 years.

His experience includes coastal planning, asset management, research, flood warning, recovery and resilience, project pipeline and delivery. He has worked closely with communities at risk from unstable coastal cliffs and sea, river and surface-water flooding.  

Jim led the original Shoreline Management Plan development in 1994 and is a member of both the ICE’s Coasts, Marine Structures and Breakwaters committee and Coastal Management committee. He is on the advisory boards of Brunel University and the Association of Drainage Authorities, and has just completed 10 years as a coastal advisor on Defra/EA’s Trent Regional Flood and Coastal committee.

Alice Johnson

Alice Johnson is a civil engineer specialising in rivers and coasts, with 25 years’ experience across numerical modelling, coastal beach assessments, developing business cases, supporting local authorities and the design and supervision of schemes. Her interest in beach, coastal geomorphology and sediment systems progressed to engineering and a PhD in developing probabilistic beach modelling. Her experience includes research on soft cliffs, sandscaping at Bacton and a review of the Dawlish Warren Scheme in Devon.

In recent years, Alice has worked on complex adaptation projects to manage flood risk for low-lying communities and provide habitat restoration. She has also worked on design projects including the Cardigan flood risk scheme, Exmouth coastal defence scheme and Mamhead Slipway at Exmouth.

Jon Kemp

Jon Kemp is a Chartered Engineer with over 25 years of international experience in coastal and maritime engineering. He spent 12 years of his career working at HR Wallingford working on coastal engineering and shoreline management.

In 2014 he joined IMDC where focused more on ports projects such as the large LNG facilities as well as fishing harbours. Serving as Operations Director for six years at IMDC he enhanced his project management experience by providing end to end responsibility for large scale delivery, financial control, resource planning, and strategic decision making. During this time, he also managed to maintain his technical knowledge and over the years he has authored several papers on coastal and port engineering.

Javier López Lara

Javier López Lara is an associate professor at the University of Cantabria (UC). He is also responsible for the Hydrodynamics and Coastal Infrastructures Group of IHCantabria. Javier graduated as a Civil Engineer (1998) from the University of Cantabria and obtained his PhD in 2002 from the same university.

After holding various positions as a researcher at the University of Cantabria and at Cornell University (USA), he obtained a position as “Ramón y Cajal” (2008-2012) in the Department of Water Science and Technology at UC, where he is currently a sub-director. Javier has developed his research in the field of wave hydrodynamics, specializing also surf zone hydrodynamics and wave-structure interactions, using both experimental and numerical methods, the latter focusing mainly on CFD codes.

In recent years he has extended his research to environmental flows, hydrodynamics of aquatic ecosystems and hydraulics. Through his research he was awarded the Modesto Vigueras Prize 2004, granted by the Technical Association of Ports and Coastal Areas, Spanish branch of the International Ports Association (PIANC) and the International Research Prize “Paepe-Willems” (PIANC), in 2005, granted to researchers under 40 years old.

Javier is currently Principal Investigator in several projects funded by the Spanish Science Ministry, competitive projects financed by the Spanish Innovation Ministry and different EU Projects. He has published 52 SCI research papers and 8 book chapters. He has advised 45 MSc and bachelor thesis and 12 PhD dissertations. He has coauthored more than one hundred national and international congress communications.

Heidi P. Moritz

Heidi received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Valparaiso University in 1981 and a Master of Engineering degree in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M in 1991. Prior to working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), she spent 2 years working in Thailand on water resources projects for the U.S. Peace Corps.

She worked at the Chicago District, USACE, for 8 years as a hydraulic/coastal engineer and at the Portland District, USACE, for 27 years. She is a member of the Coastal Working Group Advisory Board and has served as a member of the ICE Maritime Engineering Journal Advisory Panel.

Heidi’s primary areas of work with the Corps of Engineers include navigation structure design, risk and reliability analysis of coastal structures, shoreline protection and coastal structure design, and planning and adapting to climate change. Since 2008, Heidi has been working with Dr. Kate White in the Responses to Climate Change program, specifically to develop USACE adaptation guidance for Corps projects to sea level change.

Recent work has focused on understanding and developing methods to describe non-stationary loading and exposure descriptions over a project life for the range of project types within the U.S. Corps of Engineers areas of responsibility.

Richard Nunn

Richard Nunn is a chartered civil engineer with over 45 years’ experience in the water and flood risk management sector. For two decades he has worked at the Environment Agency, where he initially served as operations manager for project delivery across a ange of fluvial and coastal schemes in its capital programme. More recently, he has chaired the agency’s large project review group, which provides technical assurance for all major flood risk management projects and supports Defra in submissions to the Cabinet Office.

Richard has served on the organising committees of previous Breakwaters and Coastal Management conferences held by the ICE in the UK and France.

Chris Patterson

Chris Patterson has spent the past 30 years working in the design assessment and delivery of ports and maritime infrastructure projects with Babtie Group, Jacobs and now Amentum in their Glasgow and Edinburgh offices.

He has worked across a wide range of maritime projects, including the expansion of Freeport Container Port in the Bahamas, the extension of Castletownbere fishery harbour in Ireland, Rosyth International Container Terminal in Fife and numerous naval base developments and upgrades. He has also been involved in the inspection, assessment and repair of maritime facilities and coastal defence structures.  

He has been a member of the organising committee for this conference since 2007.

Siong Hong Ting

Siong Hong Ting has over 20 years’ international experience in coastal, maritime, reclamation and port infrastructure projects. He specialises in the design and construction supervision of breakwaters, revetments, beach nourishment, dredging and reclamation works. His experience spans the UK, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, covering projects from concept and detailed design through to site supervision and delivery. 

David Todd

Based in Perth, Western Australia, David Todd provides project and technical management services to clients including marine contractors, port authorities, project developers and project delivery consultants. He has experience in all phases of marine projects – from planning to construction, maintenance and repair of projects including breakwaters, wharves and port facilities, dredging, navigation aids and desalination plant intakes and outfalls.

David is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (Australia) and member of the WA division coastal, ocean and ports engineering panel. He has presented several papers relating to past projects at both Australian and international conferences.

Prof Jentsje van der Meer

Jentsje is an internationally renowned expert in appraisal, design and testing of breakwaters and coastal structures, including seawalls, levees, dikes, embankments, groins, revetments and shingle beaches.

His work on rubble mound structures has been included in all manuals all over the world. Work on wave overtopping resulted in the Overtopping or EurOtop Manual, a co-production by UK, NL, BE and DE, with a second edition in 2018.

He has published about 250 papers in international journals, proceedings and books. Other developments, with copy rights to Van der Meer, are hydraulic simulators. The wave overtopping simulator is a unique instrument to test the strength of real dikes for overtopping waves.

The wave run-up simulator can test the seaward side of the dikes during run-up and run-down and the wave impact simulator produces wave impacts. Wave overtopping simulators have been developed for Vietnam, USA and Singapore.