BRIGHT SPARKS LECTURE - 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENERGY GEOTECHNICS (ICEGT-2025), PARIS, FRANCE
The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for the 3rd International Conference on Energy Geotechnics (ICEGT-2025) in France would like to announce the winners of the Bright Spark Lecture Award to two distinguished young geotechnical engineers/academics listed below. They were invited to give keynote lectures on 17-20 June 2025.
Anne-Catherine Dieudonné, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "On the role of clays as natural and engineered barriers in geological disposal facilities for radioactive waste"
Merita Tafili, Postdoctoral Researcher, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
Bright Spark Lecture Title: " Experimental and numerical investigation of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of clay"
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
Anne-Catherine Dieudonné
I am an Assistant Professor of Multiphysics Geomechanics at TU Delft. My research focuses on understanding how geomaterials respond to mechanical and environmental stresses, with the aim of developing solutions for safe and resilient energy geostructures.
One of my key areas of expertise is the multi-physics and multi-scale behaviour of clays, which I have primarily developed through my work on the geological disposal of radioactive waste. My PhD research, carried out at the University of Liege (2016), focused on the hydromechanical behaviour of compacted bentonites used to seal and backfill disposal tunnels. In 2017, I was awarded the Ioannis Vardoulakis PhD prize. Following my PhD, I worked as a scientist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where I led the numerical analysis activities of the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics.
Today, my independence is evident through my leadership roles in research projects and education. Since 2018, I have secured over 3.0 m in research funding (including the prestigious personal Veni and Vidi grants) and led 6 research projects. Currently, I lead a team of 8 PhD students and 1 post-doctoral researcher. What sets me apart is my comprehensive skill set and experience working with various stakeholders.
Merita Tafili
Merita Tafili is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, specializing in geotechnical engineering with a focus on energy geotechnics, advanced soil behavior modeling and artificial intelligence. Her expertise includes the development of constitutive models for soils, bio-cementation for soil improvement, thermo-hydro- mechanical soil behavior, cyclic and dynamic loading, and unsaturated soil mechanics. She is particularly interested in advancing sustainable solutions for energy geotechnics, including geothermal systems and soil- structure interactions in energy infrastructure.
Currently, Dr. Tafili leads the BMBF-funded young researcher group focusing on "Geo-physics-Informed Neural Networks (GINN)" to enhance engineering practices, integrating machine learning with geotechnical applications. Her teaching contributions include advanced topics in soil mechanics and numerical modeling.
With an active teaching portfolio and interdisciplinary collaborations, Dr. Tafili bridges traditional geotechnical methods with innovative numerical-driven approaches. She actively collaborates on interdisciplinary projects and mentors early-career researchers. As a nominee for the ISSMGE "Bright Spark" lecture at ICEGT-2025, she seeks to further enhance the boundaries of energy geotechnics to improve predictive modeling and promote sustainable engineering practices for energy-related geotechnical challenges.
