Hywel Rhys THOMAS is the pro vice-chancellor in Cardiff University and UNESCO chair in the Development of a Sustainable Geoenvironment. Professor THOMAS is the Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of Academia Europaea, the Academy of Europe (MAE), fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW). In 2017 he received a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for “Services to Academic Research and Higher Education”.
His research involves Waste Disposal, including High Level Nuclear Waste; Contaminant transfer in soil; Gas migration in soil particularly from landfill sites; Coupled behaviourof engineered barriers; Seasonal ground movement and Energy conservation. He has got over 428 publications, including-1 textbook, 6 edited books, 113 refereed journal papers, 128 refereed conference papers, 12 invited contributions/chapters in books.