Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award
Purpose
The aim of the ISSMGE Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award is to acknowledge the contribution of young members to the profession and to the society. The award will be given in recognition of achievement during the four-year period preceding the year of the award.
The ISSMGE Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award will be presented up to 6 individuals (1/region) who have made outstanding contributions to the practice or research in geotechnical engineering through their contribution to one or more research or industrial projects. There would be a maximum of 1 award per region made every 4 years, which are presented at the ICSMGE.
The awards each amount to a cash prize of £1,000.
The nominations would be evaluated holistically based on contributions to any or several of the following criteria:
- Geotechnical project development and construction;
- Research contributions in the geotechnical community;
- Involvement in national and international geotechnical societies; and
- Publications and education in the geotechnical discipline.
Nomination of candidates
The awards will be given to ISSMGE young members who are less than 36 years of age on 31 December of the year of the quadrennial ICSMGE conference. One nomination may be made by each member society, which should include the following:
- A written motivation, not more than two pages in length, clearly explaining why the candidate is deserving of this award, provided by the candidates current organization and endorsed by the member society.
- The nominees one-page CV.
Nominations must reach the Secretary General by the announced date.
Exposure
The recipients will briefly present their contributions on the ISSMGE website and in the ISSMGE Bulletin.
Young Member Awardees
| Year | Awardee | Awardee | Awardee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Dr Gunilla Granzen (Sweden) | Dr Serge Borell (France) | Dr Chris Martin (UK) |
| 2005 | Dr Susie Gouvernec (Australia) | Dr S.W. Jacobsz (South Africa) | Dr Elen Rathje (USA) |
| 2009 | Dr Susumu Nakajima (Japan) | Dr L.A. van Paassen (Netherlands) | Dr A. Kullingsjo (Sweden) |
| 2013 | Dr Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn (Australia) | Dr Greg Siemens (USA) |
Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award
| Year | Awardee |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Dr Guillermo Narsilio |
In 2017, the Young Members' Award and the Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award were combined
| Year | Awardee | Awardee | Awardee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Dr. Zhongkun Ouyang | ||
| 2022 | Dr Anthony Leung (Hong Kong) | Dr Pooneh Maghoul (Canada) | Dr Youhu Zhang (China) |
| 2017 | Dr Jennifer Nicks (USA) | Dr Atsushi Takai (Japan) | Dr Hong Yi (China) |
The 2026 Awardee
Dr. Zhongkun Ouyang, Tsinghua SIGS, China
- Assistant Professor at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (Tsinghua SIGS)
- recipient of the 2024 ISSMGE Bright Spark Lecture Award
- Dr. Ouyang’s work has transformed one of the core areas of geotechnical engineering: deriving soil strength parameters from in-situ testing. He developed a rigorous and validated framework for evaluating the effective stress friction angle of geomaterials using CPT and DMT data, providing a reliable and efficient alternative to laboratory testing.
- his research offers both theoretical novelty and direct applicability
- He has authored 28 journal and conference papers and over 16 papers for the past 4 years
- He has led and contributed to projects with global and national impact:
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International collaborations with Fugro, Georgia DOT, and Illinois Center for Transportation (USD 500k+ in funded projects).
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National leadership in China, securing over 37 million CNY (5M+USD) as PI, including a recently awarded 30 million CNY (4M USD) research project on deep sea CPTU investigation, two NSFC projects and one National Key R&D Program.
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Industry innovation, including subsurface investigation guidelines for Yangtze River Levee safety, offshore pile-driving software for CNOOC, and a next-generation CPTU interpretation system (3M CNY, around USD 500k+ in funded industry projects).
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A patent on deriving p–y curves for offshore wind turbines from DMT data, directly advancing renewable energy foundation design.
- Dr. Ouyang has established the Ocean Geotechnics Laboratory at Tsinghua
