Neil Bar graduated from the University of Queensland in 2008 with a degree in civil engineering. He subsequently completed a master degree majoring in geotechnical engineering and engineering geology at the University of New South Wales in 2012, and a second master degree in tunnel engineering at Graz University of Technology in Austria in 2020. In 2024, he completed a PhD at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary on the topic of rock slope engineering. Neil has over 15 years of engineering & related experience on a diversity of mining (Au, Ag, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn, diamonds, coal, and mineral sands), tunnelling and civil engineering projects across 6 continents He founded Gecko Geotechnics, authored over 250 technical reports and over 85 international papers. Neil serves as the Chairman of the ISRM Commission on Risks and Reliability in Rock Slope Engineering.

Title of lecture: Understanding failure mechanisms to design and manage surface and underground excavations.