The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for the 17th Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (XVII PCSMGE) and 2nd Latin-American Regional Conference of the International Association of Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG) in Chile 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 12-16 November 2024.
Dr. Emilia Castillo Fuentes (Sociedad Chilena de Geotecnia), Ph.D. Student, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Foundation systems for floating wind turbines"
Dr Mauro Giuliano Sottile (Sociedad Argentina de Ingeniería Geotécnica), Principal Geotechnical Consultant, SRK Consulting, Argentina (Argentina Member Society)
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "A comparison of advanced constitutive models to evaluate flow liquefaction of upstream raised tailings dams"
Dr Kshama Roy (Canadian Geotechnical Society - Canadian Section ISSMGE), Principal Engineer, Integrity Solutions & Compliance, Energy System, Canada and Adjunct Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and University of Manitoba
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "An advanced soil constitutive model for soil-structure interaction analysis"
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
Emilia Castillo Fuentes
Emilia Castillo Fuentes is a civil engineer from Universidad de Chile, where she also obtained a masters degree in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering. During her early years of research Emilia investigated the effects of temperature cycles on the behaviour of soil-structure interfaces. After completing his masters degree, Emilia worked as a geotechnical engineer in consultancy for mining, where she learnt the geotechnical challenges present in this sector. Emilias industry experience includes the design and numerical modelling of leach pads, rockfill dumps and geotechnical characterisation of materials. After working some years in industry, Emilia decided to pursuit both an MSc and a PhD in Civil Engineering at the geotechnics section at Imperial College London under the supervision of Professors Lidija Zdravkovic and David Potts. During the last 3 years of research, Emilias research has focus on understanding soil-structure interaction of offshore wind turbines foundations using the Finite Element Method of analysis. Emilia has focused on studying new alternatives for foundation systems in deep waters such as suction anchors. Emilias research interests also include the further development and validation of existing industry-oriented constitutive models such as NorSand and its application to soil structure interaction problems in offshore environments.
Mauro Giuliano Sottile
Mauro was born in Corrientes, Argentina. He earned his bachelors degree in civil engineering from the Universidad Nacional del Nordeste (UNNE) and subsequently obtained a Master of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he specialized in Geotechnical Engineering and Geomechanics working under the supervision of Prof. Andrew J. Whittle. He currently works as a principal geotechnical consultant at the SRK office in Buenos Aires. His expertise resides on the use of advanced soil constitutive models and numerical methods in geotechnical analyses and design, including tailing storage facilities, foundations, embankments in soft soils, dams, tunnels and excavations. The projects in which Mauro participated are located in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, South Africa, Ghana, Mexico and Ukraine. He is a lecturer of three postgraduate courses at the University of Buenos Aires and has authored +15 publications. He currently serves as the treasurer of the Argentinean Society of Geotechnical Engineering (SAIG) and is a former member of YMPG (2017-2019).
Kshama Roy
Dr. Kshama Roy is currently working as a Principal Engineer, Integrity Solutions & Compliance, Energy Systems at DNV Canada Ltd. He is also an adjunct Professor at both Memorial University of Newfoundland and University of Manitoba. Prior to joining DNV, he worked as the Lead-Special Projects & Pipeline Integrity and Principal Investigator. NCInnovation at Northern Crescent Inc. Apart from being involved in several challenging and complex geotechnical engineering projects, he has authored over 45 papers, presents regularly at conferences, and volunteers as a peer reviewer for technical publications. Being highly focused on technology development projects with immediate industry applications, he led a team of engineers to complete 7 in-house software development projects. Dr. Roy is a passionate volunteer and loves giving back to community. Through this exceptional leadership and volunteering initiatives, Dr. Roy has leveraged his experience and knowledge to create opportunities for and enhance the development of other young geotechnical professionals. He has received more than 30 awards for his academic, leadership and volunteering services. Dr. Roy lives in Canada with his wife, and both are passionate about giving back to the community. They are providing the educational expenses of six under privileged students as their moral parents and have adopted tow orphan elephants, Naleku and Lemeki.
