Lance Roberts

Lance A. Roberts, Ph.D., P.E. is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (South Dakota Mines).  Prior to his role as the Provost, Dr. Roberts was the Head of the Department of Mining Engineering and Management at South Dakota Mines. Before joining South Dakota Mines in June 2014, Dr. Roberts was the Senior Vice President of the Mining & Energy Division at RESPEC Consulting & Services (RESPEC), Rapid City. While at RESPEC, Dr. Roberts was responsible for operations, project management, and business development, marketing, and client development within the mining and energy market sectors, specifically related to salt mechanics, rock mechanics, underground cavern storage, and oil and gas development. 

Dr. Roberts has also served as an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at South Dakota Mines from 2007-2011 where he taught geotechnical engineering courses and conducted research in the field of reliability-based design and risk assessment for geotechnical engineering applications, along with specialty laboratory testing of soil and pavement materials. Dr. Roberts has published over 50 technical papers in both national and international journals and conference proceedings and has presented his research results at numerous forums.  In addition, Dr. Roberts has numerous years of experience in the private sector prior to his first appointment at South Dakota Mines focusing on the design of foundations, earth retention, slope stability, and other geotechnical and geostructural-related projects.  Dr. Roberts received his BS and MS in civil engineering from South Dakota Mines in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and his Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering/geoscience from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in 2006.  Dr. Roberts is a registered professional engineer in the states of Kansas and Missouri