Lance Roberts

Brief Bio

Lance A. Roberts, Ph.D., P.E., serves as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at South Dakota Mines. Before being named Provost, Dr. Roberts served as Interim Provost and as Professor and Head of the Department of Mining Engineering and Management. He taught courses in rock mechanics and led a number of strategic initiatives to grow enrollment and research in the department. Before joining SD Mines, Dr. Roberts was the Senior Vice President of the Mining & Energy Division at RESPEC Consultants, Rapid City. Dr. Roberts has also served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at SD Mines, where he taught courses and conducted research in geotechnical engineering. Over the course of his career, Dr. Roberts has published over 45 technical papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings and has presented his research results at numerous forums. In addition, Dr. Roberts has several years of experience in the private sector, focusing on the design and analysis of deep foundations, earth retention systems, slope stability, rock mechanics, and other geotechnical and geostructural-related projects.

Research Expertise

Lance A. Roberts, Ph.D., P.E. research expertise include numerous areas of geotechnical and geostructural engineering. Past research focused on deep foundation systems, soil-structure interaction, advanced laboratory testing and characterization of geotechnical materials, and asphalt materials. Dr. Roberts' current research interests include time-dependent behavior of geological materials, general rock mechanics, underground mined storage and waste disposal, and reliability-based design for underground caverns and geostructural applications. Funding sources have included the South Dakota Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Federal Highway Administration, and private industry.

Teaching

Lance A. Roberts, Ph.D., P.E. teaching spans all areas of geotechnical engineering and rock mechanics. Courses taught include foundation engineering, applied geotechnical engineering, numerical methods for civil engineering, slope stability for soil and rock slopes, advanced earth retention structures, introductory rock mechanics, advanced rock mechanics, and tunneling and underground structures.