Rate My Professor Tom Baldock

Professor Tom Baldock is Head of the School of Civil Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at the University of Queensland. He obtained his B.Eng (Hons) in 1990 and PhD in Civil Engineering in 1995 from Imperial College London, along with the DIC diploma and MIEAust qualification. His research centers on coastal and ocean engineering, with key interests in swash zone hydrodynamics, beach face sediment transport, coral reef hydrodynamics and shoreline behaviour, long wave generation and surf beat, extreme non-linear waves, storm surge, and tsunami hazards. Additional areas include renewable energy, such as wave energy conversion and infrastructure for offshore aquaculture, as well as higher education.

Professor Baldock has authored over 120 journal papers and 80 conference papers, appearing in prestigious outlets like Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, and Coastal Engineering, where he is the most published author of the past decade. Selected works include 'A laboratory study of non-linear surface waves on water' (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 1996), 'Long wave forcing by the breaking of random gravity waves on a beach' (Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 2002), 'Long wave forcing on a barred beach' (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2004), 'An analytical model for bore-driven run-up' (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2008), and recent papers such as 'Physical and numerical modelling of representative tsunami waves propagating and overtopping in converging channels' (Coastal Engineering, 2022) and 'A 3D numerical and experimental parametric study of wave-induced scour around large bluff body structures' (Ocean Engineering, 2022). He has supervised 18 PhD completions since 2007, with students producing over 60 journal papers and securing academic positions worldwide. In 2017, he earned the UQ Award for Excellence in HDR Supervision. Baldock serves on the Editorial Board of Coastal Engineering, the Engineers Australia National Committee on Coastal and Ocean Engineering, and chaired the Coasts and Ports 2017 organising committee. Current projects encompass the National Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program for the Great Barrier Reef, ARC grants on coastal hazards, CSIRO tsunami studies, and international collaborations on beach processes.