Professor Peter Dowd is the Director of the ARC Training Centre for Integrated Operations for Complex Resources and has more than 45 years experience in academic research, teaching and administration and in consulting to industry. His research interests include geostatistical modelling and prediction in mineral resource, petroleum reservoir and environmental applications; geological modelling and mathematical geology; stochastic modelling and quantified risk assessment in natural resource and environmental applications; definitions and reporting of ore reserves; mineral economics; financial analysis and modelling; operational research; and computer-aided mine design. He has consulted extensively in geostatistics and mineral economics to the mining industry in Africa, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America and the petroleum industry in the UK and Saudi Arabia. The context of much of this work has been the modelling and estimation of orebodies and hydrocarbon reservoirs, often in very complex geological settings; the generation of three-dimensional orebody models as the basis for optimal mine design and scheduling; establishing resources and reserves together with associated confidence limits; the design of blasting and loading operations to optimise mineral extraction; and the quantification of geological and technical risk associated with resource extraction.

Professor Dowd’s contributions to the development and application of geostatistics were recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1998 when he was elected to Fellowship of the Academy. The citation particularly noted his “distinguished international contributions” to the application of geostatistics in mine planning and design. In 2006 he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in recognition of his contributions to geostatistics and for leadership in engineering education.

He has been cited as one of Australia’s 100 most influential engineers by the Institution of Engineers Australia.