Career 

I graduated from Leeds University in 1986 with an honours degree in Mining Engineering. I joined Southampton University as a Research Assistant on a 2-year contract investigating the quality of highway reinstatements and developed new in-situ density testing and surface profiling apparatus. I then joined Geotechnics Ltd. of Coventry in 1988 as a ‘Teaching Company Associate’, researching and developing a new portable field tester for assessing the stiffness of highway foundations in-situ. I was also in the role of a graduate geotechnical engineer from 1988-1992, focussed on ground investigations and field monitoring for a variety of client organisations and geotechnical schemes. 

In 1992 I joined Loughborough University as a lecturer in geotechnics and continued my links with Geotechnics Ltd. and other stakeholders working toward the publication of new guidance for the performance-related design of highways in the UK, and associated specialist field testing and interpretation. I was awarded my PhD in 1999 on the ‘Impact Assessment of Road Foundations’. My current personal title is ‘Reader in Ground Engineering’. I have instigated and collaborated on many industry-funded research programmes, including Teaching Company Schemes, Engineering Doctorates and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, across a broad range of real-world problems in geotechnical engineering and sports facility infrastructure.  I have carried out many leadership roles in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, including Programme Director for Civil Engineering, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Academic Group Leader for 9 academics, and I am currently the Associate Dean for Teaching.

Professional affiliations

• Member of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation
• Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Awards

• 2016-17 – Loughborough Academic Awards: Winner of ’Student Engagement’ award
• Fleming P.R., Forrester S., McLaren N.J., 2015. Understanding the effects of decompaction maintenance on the infill state and play performance of third-generation artificial grass pitches. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. doi: 10.1177/1754337114566480. (SNIP 1.15). (Award-winning paper, JSET 2015) 

• Dijkstra T., Dixon N., Crosby C., Frost M., Gunn D., Fleming P., Wilks J., 2014. Forecasting infrastructure resilience to climate change, Proceedings of the ICE - Transport, Volume 167, Issue 5, October, doi: 10.1680/tran.13.00089, ISSN: 0965-092X (Award-winning paper, ICE 2015, Rees Jeffreys)

External activities

• Editorial Board for Sports Engineering (SAGE)
• Editorial Board for Sports Engineering & Technology (Part P – IMechE)
• Technical Committee, Sport and Play Construction Association (SAPCA) 
• AFS20 Geotechnical Instrumentation and Modelling, Transportation Research Board, Washington, USA.
• Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Federation University, Australia 
• External Examiner, MSc in Tunnelling & Underground Construction, University of Warwick

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

• FIFA, the international governing body of Association Football
  FIH, the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey
• Technical Surfaces Ltd. 
• Federation University, Australia
• Sport England
• Grounds Management Association (formerly the IOG)
• Highways Agency
• High Speed 2
• Network Rail

·       FIFA, the international governing body of Association Fotball

·       FIH, international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey