Blast and Hostile Vehicle Mitigation

Two leading engineers from Arup (Will Thickett and Luke Pascoe) will present on Blast and Hostile Vehicle Mitigation techniques, that includes blast effects, role of design and provide case studies.

Will Thickett

William has 12 years’ experience in the blast and security sphere and in that time has become a Chartered Engineer as well as being added to the Register of Security Engineers and Specialists.

 He started his career with a solid grounding in structural engineering before specialising in the blast and security sphere working with The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK as well as carrying out live blast testing on numerous glazing products. In 2011 William joined Arup and moved to Melbourne, Australia to help develop the blast and security offering. During this time William has developed his security and blast experience on projects with Victoria Police, Melbourne Airport as well as Singapore Sports Hub.

In 2016 William became the Security and Blast leader for the Victoria region and has grown a team of unique security and blast specialists who service a range of security related projects for government and private clients.

Luke Pascoe

With over 10 years of experience in the engineering sector - Luke has worked on projects in the United States, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia. He is a Senior Consultant in Arup’s Melbourne office and is the technical lead for blast engineering within the Australasian region having previously fulfilled the same role within the UKMEA region. Luke has a civil and structural engineering background and specialises in the assessment of structural and material response to impact and shock loads. He began working in the specialist field of structural response to footfall induced vibration in addition to designing conventional building structures. Starting in 2008, Luke became involved in the assessment and design of structures and façades subjected to blast loads. Since then he has acted as a technical supervisor to three PhD candidates at Imperial College London, examining the behaviours of glazing and façades when subjected to blast loads.

 Additionally, he acted as Arup’s representative and project manager for a European Commission research programme (SPIRIT) investigating the effects of chemical, biological, radiological and explosive threats in the built environment. He has managed over $100,000 of internal Arup research funding and strong relationships with research institutions around the world. Luke is a dual British and Australian national and relocated to Australia in November 2016. Since then he has been working with branches of the Commonwealth Government to develop new guidance on effective means to mitigate low probability-high consequence terrorist events in airport design and been working with Melbourne Airport to reduce their exposure to terrorist threats.