Bright Sparks Lectures - 9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (9iCEG), Chania, Greece
The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for the 9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (9iCEG), Chania, Greece would like to announce the winners of the Bright Spark Lecture Award to threr distinguished young geotechnical engineers/academics: Alexandra Saracho, Kuo Tian, Jie Hu, and Nicolo Guarena. They were invited to give keynote lectures on 25-28 June 2023.
Dr Nicolo Guarena, Research Associate, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Semipermeable Membrane Behaviour of Engineered Bentonite-Based Barriers For Multi-Ionic Solutions"
Dr Alexandra C Saracho, Assistant Professor, The University of Texas, Austin, USA
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Biogeotechnics For Hazard Mitigation, Energy Generation, CCS, and Living Construction Materials"
Dr Jie Hu, Professor, Zhejian University, China
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Slope Failures Induced By High Gas Pressure in Wet Landfills and its Control Measures"
Dr Kuo Tian, Assistant Professor, Zhejian University, China
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Long Term Hydraulic Conductivity of Bentonite-polymer Geosynthetic Clay Liners"
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
Kuo Tian
Dr. Kuo Tian holds a BE degree in civil engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and MS and PhD degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Tian joins George Mason University as an assistant professor of geotechnical/geoenvironmental engineering. Dr. Tians research in geoenvironmental engineering focuses on the design and evaluation of environmental containment systems for municipal, hazardous, and radioactive wastes, innovative geomaterials for sustainable construction applications, and fate and transport of contaminants in soil. His research includes fundamental laboratory studies, practical field experiments, and computer modeling.
Jie Hu
Jie Hu is a Hundred Talents Program Professor in geotechnical engineering at Zhejiang University, China. He received B.S. degree in geological engineering from China University of Geosciences in 2015 and Ph.D. degree in geotechnical engineering from Zhejiang University in 2020. He served as a visiting scholar at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2019. After two years of postdoctoral research, he was offered a professorship at the age of 29, becoming one of the youngest professors at Zhejiang University. His research focuses on multi-phase flow behavior and engineering control measures in municipal solid waste landfills. He published 20 peer-reviewed papers in top-tier journals including Géotechnique (2020, 2022, 2023), Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Engineering Geology, Waste Management and Computers and Geotechnics in the last five years. He discovered the formation mechanism of foam-induced high gas pressure in landfills and conducted centrifugal model tests on slope failure induced by elevated gas pressure for the first time. He developed three-dimensional and high-efficiency drainage technology and equipment to prevent environmental disasters in landfills.
Nicolò Guarena
Dr. Nicolò Guarena obtained a Ph.D. Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with the highest honours at the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy), where he is currently serving as a Research Associate.
The relevance of his research activity, which is primarily focused on the coupled chemo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of active clays and the use of geosynthetics for the control of contaminated liquids in the subsoil, has been recognised through several remarkable awards, such as the invitation to attend, as one of the two Italian delegates, the 7th International Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference, and the nomination as the recipient of the 10th National Prize AGI-IGS, issued by the Italian Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society.
Furthermore, Dr. Guarena has been distinguished for his contribution to the conferences and activities promoted by the ISSMGE Technical Committee No.215. Among other acknowledgments, he was invited to deliver a presentation at the ISSMGE Interactive Technical Talk on Environmental Geotechnics, moderated by Dr. Marc Ballouz.
Alexandra Clarà Saracho
Dr Alexandra Clarà Saracho joined The University of Texas at Austin as an Assistant Professor in Geotechnical Engineering in January 2023, after being a Research Fellow at Kings College, University of Cambridge. At the intersection between geotechnical engineering, the biological sciences, and materials chemistry, her expertise lies in the field of bio-mediated soil processes and sustainable geotechnical engineering practices. Through a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, she combines fundamental investigations of microbial processes, with the characterization and physical modelling of bio-geotechnical systems to advance fundamental engineering knowledge and develop innovative technologies for carbon capture and storage, geothermal energy generation, hazard mitigation, and infrastructure construction. Ultimately, through rigorous science, she strives to generate solid engineering that can make a meaningful and positive impact in society.
