BRIGHT SPARKS LECTURE - 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GIS AND GEOINFORMATION ZONING FOR DISASTER MITIGATION (GIZ 2025), ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN
The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for 6th International Conference on GIS and GeoInformation Zoning for Disaster Mitigation (GIZ 2025) in Kazakhstan would like to announce the winners of the Bright Spark Lecture Award to three distinguished young geotechnical engineers/academics listed below. They were invited to give keynote lectures on 28-30 August 2025.
Balganym Dosmukhambetova, Senior Lecturer, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Environmental assessment of pyrolyzed industrial mixed plastic waste"
Bharat Rattan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Stabilization and ecological restoration of tailing: addressing key challenges and future opportunities"
Yang Liu, PhD. Student, Wuhan university of Technology
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Brittle failure mechanism and evaluation model of reef limestone under multi-factor regulation of mineral-pore-interface interactions"
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
Balganym Dosmukhambetova
Balganym Dosmukhambetova, a senior lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the same institution where she currently teaches. She further pursued her academic career by earning a PhD from Kyoto University, focusing on pyrolyzed plastic-related waste.
Her main research interests lie in the utilization of pyrolyzed plastic waste and sustainable geotechnical engineering. At present, she is working on a research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, titled “AP25794443 Optimization of pyrolysis treatment conditions for the production of synthetic ash from contaminated mixed plastic waste to utilize for geotechnical purposes.”
Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining environmental science, geotechnical engineering, and sustainable materials development.
Bharat Rattan
I am Bharat Rattan, a postdoctoral researcher at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) working under the supervision of Prof. Chen Rui. My research mainly focuses on contaminated soil-plant interactions and sustainable geotechnical engineering. I have a academic background with a PhD from IIT Guwahati on optimizing soil-plant systems through amendments for environmental resilience. I also hold an M.Tech from IIT Guwahati with expertise in unsaturated soil mechanics and amendments.
Currently, I am working on the application of tailings materials in geotechnical engineering with the goal of transforming industrial waste into sustainable engineering solutions. My work aims to address key challenges in tailings management and contribute to environmentally friendly construction practices and circular economy.
In addition, I have published 15 papers in renowned journals and presented at international conferences. My interdisciplinary research approach integrates environmental science, geotechnical engineering, and sustainable material innovation. Applicant Motivations/Personal.
Yang Liu
Yang Liu, born in 1998, Ph.D. candidate in Geotechnical Engineering at Wuhan University of Technology (WHUT), China, jointly supervised by Prof. Dongsheng Xu (Nominated Member of ISSMGE TC305 Committee) and Prof. Askar Zhussupbekov (Chairman of ISSMGE TC305). Specializing in marine geotechnical engineering, the research investigates: (1) Multi-scale mechanical behavior and cross-scale model construction of coral reef geotechnical materials; (2) Geotechnical material-structure coupling mechanism for stability control of coral reef engineering. Actively involved in coral reef investigations through research projects supported by the Ministry of Education and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including 2 National Natural Science Foundation projects and 1 National Key Research and Development Program. Published 2 EI-indexed journal papers. Organized a mini-symposium on TC305 at WHUT as Secretary of the Organizing Committee in 2023, facilitating academic exchange in marine geotechnics. Awarded the 2024 Outstanding Graduate and Excellent Master's Thesis honors by WHUT.
