From the Nepalese mountains to the deep seabed off Australia

The unused corner of the lab

A scholarship brought Sharma to the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok for his master's degree. The program attracted students from across Asia, and Sharma's supervisor there had conducted postdoctoral work at NGI in the 1970s. Norway, and NGI in particular, came up regularly in lectures.

From Bangkok, he followed up on a contact at the University of Western Australia in Perth, who offered him a visiting researcher position. He applied for a local scholarship, was awarded one, and began his PhD on the cyclic behavior of cemented carbonate sediments. This material would define much of his subsequent career.

The choice of topic was, in part, practical. The university's centrifuge testing facility was so popular that it reached gridlock. Sharma went in the opposite direction. He chose to specialize in underutilized equipment for element testing, which involves taking small sample pieces for analysis, rather than the popular model testing.

"There was another facility with all the equipment, and nobody was using it. So I decided to go there instead. It turned out to be a really good decision," he explains.

He completed his PhD in 2003 and spent a year as a research associate at COFS UWA before joining Golder Associates in the industry. After a few years on onshore and mining projects, he joined Advanced Geomechanics AG: a small, local consulting firm with a strong focus on offshore energy and carbonate sediments. When the much larger Fugro acquired the firm, the contrast between the two ultimately led him to join NGI in 2019, where he continued his work on carbonate sediments.

The material that disappears on the first hit

Carbonate sediments are formed from marine organisms: shells, corals, and other biological material. They are widespread in Australian offshore waters, where most of the country's oil and gas development has taken place, and where offshore wind projects are now emerging. What makes them so difficult is their dual nature. In an undisturbed condition, they can appear strong. Under loading or disturbance, they collapse.

"Imagine the strength is 100. As soon as you disturb it, the strength can drop by less than three. The particles are extremely fragile; you can break them with your hand. And once they start crushing, the strength just isn't there," Sharma says.

The comparison to Norwegian quick clay is one Sharma welcomes: stable ground that can liquefy almost instantaneously with minimal disturbance. In Australia, the consequences were literally concrete. Early offshore foundations installed in the 1980s were designed for conventional pile driving, hammering large steel tubes into the seabed until they reached a target depth. On carbonate ground, the first blow was sometimes the last.

"They would start driving, and the pile would just disappear. Tens of meters of pile went into the ground on the first hit, because as soon as the material was disturbed, it loses its strength," Sharma explains.

The challenge compounds at every stage: the material varies dramatically over short distances, cementation can change within meters, and even the process of collecting a sample and transporting it from the seabed to the laboratory can alter its behavior enough to produce misleading results. Standard testing methods developed for other materials do not automatically transfer.

"Whatever I measure here, I cannot simply apply elsewhere. I have to be very specific. So you end up doing a great deal of testing and site investigation," he says.

The solutions developed over decades of research include grouting piles in place rather than driving them and carefully selecting foundation locations based on seabed variability. NGI's Perth office, which opened a geotechnical laboratory in 2023, is now central to that work across the Asia-Pacific region.

A company of 400 is still a family

Sharma joined NGI Perth in 2019, following a period at Fugro after the acquisition of Advanced Geomechanics. The contrast between the two environments was stark.

"When we were in a small company, we were a family. Everyone looked out for each other. If someone were working late, you would go and ask, 'Are you okay? Do you need help?' When I moved to Fugro, that culture of looking after each other was much rarer. When people talk about NGI being big, I think they are comparing it to what we were before. But I have worked in companies with tens of thousands of employees. 400 people are not a big number. Not really big," he says.

For Sharma, the question of size is not about headcount; it is about whether leadership knows who you are.

"Any company where senior management knows most of their staff by name is not a big company. There are still small groups within the company where you feel that close connection. That is not something you find in large corporations. In those environments, you may seldom get the chance to meet or even greet senior management. And even if you do, the chances of them remembering you an hour later are slim."

He also points to knowledge-sharing as a defining characteristic, and a non-trivial one. In large consultancies, colleagues sometimes withhold knowledge out of concern for their own position. At NGI, the dynamic is different.

"If I have a problem, I call a colleague in Oslo or Houston. They even reply late at night. That is beautiful. It means we want to win as a team, not just as individuals," says Sharma.

Still connected to the village

Sharma lives close to the beach in Perth, follows football and cricket, and tries to get a walk or a run on most days. He has two sons, aged 15 and 20. A few years ago, he took them both to his home village in Nepal.

"They just couldn't imagine it. Even in their imagination, they couldn't picture what it was like. The shock on their faces said everything," he recalls.

He returns to Nepal every two or three years and has thought about spending time in the mountain village again after retirement. For now, his work keeps him firmly in Perth, and in an organization that, despite its growth, still feels, to him, like the kind of place where everyone looks after each other.

"I don't feel like a satellite out here. I feel part of NGI. And in Perth, I can say with confidence we have that family culture. People are looking after each other. That matters more than people realize," says Sharma.