Payne has Australian, Canadian and US citizenship and more than 25 years’ experience in underground and open cut mine geotechnical engineering, mine engineering and management.

Most recently Payne held the position of manager geotechnical services for the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance.

Payne’s work has been in eastern Canada, western Canada and Queensland, where he has worked as the mining engineer, geotechnical engineer, mine services manager and manager of geotechnical services for open cut and underground longwall and pillar mines as well as working for seven years with the Canada Centre for Minerals and Energy Technology as a strata control engineer in a research capacity in underground coal mining.

A registered professional mining and mining geotechnical engineer in Canada and Queensland, Payne also spent two years as the global facilitator for the fatal risk of underground ground control for BHP Billiton, traveling and auditing underground coal and hard rock mines in South Africa, USA, Canada and Australia.

UNSW Mining Engineering Chair of Rock Mechanics Professor Ismet Canbulat said Payne’s appointment was “well-deserved and reflects Dan’s years of efforts in education and research in Australia”.

“For the past two years Dan has been delivering lectures in Strata Control Graduate Diploma course mostly on practical aspects of Geotechnical Engineering. Dan has also been involved in research through ACARP,” Canbulat said.

“He has been the chairman of the Strata Control Committee and an industry monitor of numerous recent critical projects that advanced the geotechnical engineering knowledge in Australia. UNSW Australia is delighted have his involvement at the School of Mining Engineering.”