Harry George Poulos (born 27 April 1940) is an Australian of Greek descent[3][4] civil engineer specialising in geotechnical engineering and soil mechanics, internationally known as an expert on soil behaviour and pile foundations.
Poulos graduated from the University of Sydney, where he took a bachelor's degree, BSc in 1961 and his doctorate, PhD in 1965.
His PhD research was supervised by Professor Edward H. Davis[5] and was titled "The analysis of settlement of foundations on clay soils under three-dimensional conditions".
Poulos served in the Australian Standards Committee for pile foundations (2010), was from 1980 to 1995 part of the Council of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS), was from 1982 to 1984 its president, and the Council of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) the vice president for the Asia-Australia region he was in 1989 to 1994.
He has been involved worldwide in various basic construction projects, such as pile foundations for skyscrapers in Dubai (Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers, the Burj Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world, where he performed the geotechnical testing), the Docklands Project in Melbourne, or 700 km (430 mi) Egnatia Odos motorway straight through Greece (2001 to 2005), where in particular the earthquakes played a role.