Peter Dowd

Biography

Professor Peter Dowd has more than 40 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. The context of much of this work has been the modelling and estimation of orebodies, coal deposits 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. Recent work has focussed on the characterisation of rock masses in hot dry rock enhanced geothermal systems; for environmental risk analysis and assessment; for mining applications; and for stochastic modelling of flow pathways in aquifers. 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. Professor Dowd was Vice-President (2007-2008) and President (2009-2010) of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans and Chair of the Group of Eight Engineering Deans and Associates 2007-2012. He was Vice-President (1996-98) and President (1998-99) of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (now the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining). 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. Consultancies include ore reserve estimation, reporting of reserves, mine planning, geological modelling, feasibility studies, valuation, input to the development of mining codes and assessment of the micro- and macro-economic effects of mining taxation systems. These consultancies have included evaluations of many of the world’s major orebodies and mineral deposits, particularly in Australasia, Europe and the Americas. He has published over 200 papers and parts of books in the fields of geostatistics, stochastic modelling and spatial statistics, operational research, computer-aided mine design, mineral economics, mine finance and valuation and has developed commercialised software products for the minerals industry.

Research Interest

Geostatistical Integration & Calibration of Seismic, Geophysical & Core Data