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Engineering the Future
Associate Professor Genevieve Langdon
Impacts are a part of daily life, ranging from minor bumps to devastating explosions. Associate Professor Genevieve
Langdon, who leads the Blast Performance of Novel Lightweight Materials project in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, seeks to study the effect of explosive devices.
Researcher Profile
Her primary focus is on the response of lightweight
materials and structures to blast loading. This
includes materials such as fibre-reinforced polymeric
composites, textile concrete, hybrid metal-composite
structures, sandwich panels, and cellular materials such
as honeycombs and foams.
Unlike traditional steel structures, lightweight materials
absorb energy through a wide range of different failure
mechanisms and often recover much of their original
shape once the pressure is removed. This makes
understanding the changing behaviour of lightweight
materials particularly important and challenging.
Associate Professor Langdon completed a fellowship,
funded by the 1851 Royal Commission, at the Blast
Impact and Survivability Research Unit at UCT and
worked at the University of Liverpool Impact Research
Centre from 1999 to 2004. As part of her role at UCT, she
was also involved in the setting up of an apprenticeship
programme – UCT’s first – in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering that seeks to boost skills in
the engineering sector by offering internships to newly
qualified interns in the industry. She is also a founding
member of the new South African Young Academy
of Science – a group that is designed to bridge the
gap between the more senior and well-established
Academy of Science of South Africa and the up-and-
coming young scientists who may well be future leaders
in their fields.
Her primary focus is on the
response of lightweight materials
and structures to blast loading.
She was also involved in the
setting up of an apprenticeship
programme that seeks to boost
skills in the engineering sector.