Tom Baldock

Professor Tom Baldock, B.Eng, Ph.D (Lond), DIC, MIEAust. Professor Baldock's research is primarily in the field of Coastal and Ocean Engineering, but also encompasses renewable energy and higher education. He has published over 120 journal papers and over 80 conference papers, notably in top-rated journals for his discipline (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society), and has been one of the most published authors in the journal Coastal Engineering over the past decade. He has 22 PhD graduated as Principal Advisor since 2007. His Ph.D. students have published over 100 journal papers since 2004. They have worked on field and laboratory experiments in the UK, Europe, the USA, in association with international researchers and government agencies. Prof Baldock received a UQ Award for 'Excellence in HDR Supervision' in 2017. He has recently worked on a major project within the National Reef Restoration and Adaption Program (https://gbrrestoration.org/) focused on the Great Barier Reef and is a Chief Investigator on the recently awarded ARC Centre of Excellence 'Our Future Oceans' (https://www.unsw.edu.au/research/our-future-oceans). He has strong national and international collaboration on research on topical issues in coastal engineering and close links with Government and National agencies, which includes consultancy and expert witness services in Marine Engineering. Previous, recent and current relevant research projects include a multi-partner CSIRO Cluster project under the Wealth from Oceans Flagship, investigating tsunami impact on ultra-long submarine pipelines running from the deep ocean up to continental slope and then onshore, ARC Discovery, ARC Linkage and ARC LIEF projects investigating storm surge and wave run-up along the East Australian coast, and four European Union HYDRALAB IV transnational access projects to study beach erosion and recovery processes in large wave flume facilities. He has worked with Geoscience Australia on the Bushfire and Natural Hazards projects, Resilience of Coasts to Clustered storm events and with the Global Change Institute (UQ) on the World Bank project 'Capturing Coral Reef Ecosystems Services', as well as the National Reef Resilience and Restoration Project (RRAP). He is a member of the Editorial Board for Coastal Engineering and a former member of the Engineers Australia National Committee on Coastal and Ocean Engineering. He was Chair of the Organising Committee for Coasts and Ports 2017, held in Cairns, June 2017. Surf zone waves and tsunami impact; Wave run-up and beach erosion; Swash zone hydrodynamics and sediment transport; Surf Beat on Plane and Barred Beaches; Bed Shear Stress in the Swash Zone and Sediment Transport; Swash Zone hydrodynamics and Sediment Transport; Wave overtopping, including tsunami overtopping; Coral reef hydrodynamics; Impact of sea level rise on coastlines on open and reef-fronted coasts; Surf zone processes and beach erosion; Infrastructure for offshore aquaculture; Wave energy conversion

[2026] A clustering-based surrogate model leveraging random forest for rapid pumping optimization in saltwater-intruded heterogeneous aquifers. Ranjbarzeinalygharamaleki, Ali, Cherubini, Claudia and Baldock, Tom (2026). Environmental Science and Pollution Research. doi: 10.1007/s11356-026-37904-8 [2026] Investigating coral rubble dynamics through tilting base and flume experiments. Deng, Wen, Simonnet, Cyprien, Nolan, Lauren, Callaghan, David P. and Baldock, Tom E. (2026). Coastal Engineering, 205 104931, 1-19. doi: 10.1016/j.coastaleng.2025.104931 [2026] Leveraging Laboratory Experiments of Shoreline Response to Sea‐Level Rise: A Beach Disequilibrium Perspective. D’Anna, M., Ribas, F., Coco, G., Bayle, P. M., Calvete, D., Falqués, A., Baldock, T. E., Atkinson, A. L. and Beuzen, T. (2026).