Mehdi Serati completed his PhD at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) through The University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia in Geotechnical Engineering. His core research expertise is in the design and setup of advanced equipment and experiments to test rocks and brittle composites. His area of work is analytical and experimental methods of geotechnical problems, materials testing, rock mechanics, and rock fracture mechanics. He is also the Deputy Manager of the internationally-recognized Large Open Pit Project, which is a collaboration funded by mining companies worldwide aimed at addressing critical gaps in the current understanding of rock slope failures and landslides in large open pit mines.