BRIGHT SPARKS LECTURES
The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for the 8th Asia-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils in Australia would like to announce the winners of the Bright Spark Lecture Award to four distinguished young geotechnical engineers/academics listed below. They were invited to give keynote lectures on 6-8 December 2024.
Dr. Qing-yi Mu, Professor, Chang'an University, China
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Experimental study and constitutive modelling of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of unsaturated loess"
Dr Jiapei Du, Postdoc Research Fellow, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Nanoscale Modelling of Expansive Soil Behavior"
The Bright Spark Lecture Award was established to promote young members of the ISSMGE to play a major role in various international and regional conferences. Recipients of this award are invited to give a keynote lecture at ISSMGE conferences. All Technical Committee conference organisers and Member Society conference organisers are encouraged to select Bright Spark Lecturers at their conferences. Details regarding the award can be found on the ISSMGE website: https://www.issmge.org/the-society/awards/bright-spark-lecture-award.
We invite everyone, especially young geotechnical engineers, to come and enjoy the lectures. We hope these lectures can inspire and motivate us further to excel in our beloved field, geotechnical engineering.
Winners Bio
Qing-yi Mu
Dr. Mu is a full professor in the School of Engineering Geology and Geomatics at Chang'an University, China. He earned his PhD degree at the Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology in 2017. His areas of expertise include unsaturated soil mechanics, plant-soil-rock
-water interaction in mountainous environments, and mitigation of shallow and deep
geological hazards. He serves as the Principle Investigator on two research projects funded by
the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China. His research contributions have been
recognised through the publication of over 30 SCI papers in prestigious geotechnical
engineering journals such as Géotechnique, Can Geotech J, Int J Numer Anal Met, Comput
Geotech, Water Resour Res and Eng Geol. These research findings have been successfully
implemented in many high-profile engineering projects, including China's largest-scale loess
embankment in Yan'an New District. He has received several accolades, including recognition
as a "Top Reviewer" by the editorial board of Bull Eng Geol Environ (2018-2022), the "
Second-Class Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress" from the China Rock
Mechanics and Engineering Association (2023), and the award for "Top Cited Article" from
WILEY (2022-2023).
Jiapei Du
Dr. Jiapei Du is a postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT University. He earned two PhD degrees in
Geotechnical Engineering from RMIT and Petroleum Engineering from China University of
Petroleum in June 2023 and October 2019, respectively. His major research interests include
nanoscale characterization and modelling of expansive soil behavior, and the development of
nano-engineered cementing materials for complex geological environments. Dr. Du has authored
45 peer-reviewed papers, with 88% published in Q1 journals, serving as the first and
corresponding author for 30 of them. Dr. Dus research has achieved international recognition, as
demonstrated by his presentations at international conferences and workshops. He has received
several prestigious awards, such as Australia Research Council Discovery Early Career
Research Award, HDR Engineering Prize from RMIT University, Science and Technology Award
from China Association of Oceanic Engineering, Featured People in ARC Smart Pavements Hub,
Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Student Abroad, and Cover Page
Article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. As the principal inventor, Dr. Du has secured 6
patents, including a notable invention - a novel cementing technology tailored for deep-sea soils -
commercialized in Lingshui 17-2 offshore gas field, which has significantly benefited the China
National Offshore Oil Corporation.
