Recent Highlights

Recent events, activities and news from the Geotechnics Section

  •  2022 Cooling Prize: Congratulations to former MSc student Stan Qi who was awarded the 2022 Cooling Prize based on his MSc dissertation.
  • SUT OSIG One day MSc masterclass 08/06/2023: Since 2010 the Imperial College Geotechnics Group has been arranging, along with the Society for Underwater Technology, a one day “Masterclass course” on Offshore Geophysics and Geotechnical Engineering at Imperial College (Skempton Building).

  • NUMGE 2023: The 10th European Conference on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical Engineering was  held at Imperial College London, on the 26 - 28 June 2023.  
  •  £1.5 million grant awarded to develop Sustainable, Flexible and Efficient Ground-source heating and cooling systems (SaFEGround): Dr. David Taborda is leading this UKRI-funded project that aims to decarbonise heating and cooling.   Funding was awarded in May 2021.  Details of this, and other projects funded in this scheme can be found on the UKRI website.
  • 2021 BGA Masters Dissertation  Prize: Congratulations to former MSc student Ana Pirone who was awarded the 2021 British Geotechnical Association (BGA) Masters Dissertation Prize for her dissertation "Geotechnical data integration in the calibration of constitutive models using machine learning and metaheuristics."
  • ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Editor's Choice: Congratulations to Antonio Carraro whose paper was selected as Editor's Choice in May 2022:   "Effect of Principal Stress Rotation and Intermediate Principal Stress Changes on the Liquefaction Resistance and Undrained Cyclic Response of Ottawa Sand" by E.O.Tastan and J.A.H.Carraro; Volume 148, Issue 5.
  • 2021 BGA Conference Prize: Congratulations to Tokio Morimoto and Marina Schaider Bortolotto for winning first prize for their poster "Experimental and modelling challenges on temperature effects on granular material" at the BGA annual conference.
  • Imperial College Geotechnics Section is pleased to announce the relaunch of a Rankine Day Seminar at their South Kensington campus on 15th March 2023. As usual, the Seminar precedes the Rankine Lecture which will be delivered by Professor John Carter from the University of Newcastle, Australia.
  • 2020 BGA Medal:  The Géotechnique paper PISA design model for monopiles for offshore wind turbines: Application to a stiff glacial clay till has been awarded the 2020 British Geotechnical Association medal.  This paper was written in collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford and TU Delft, and the co-authors included, Richard J. Jardine, David M. Potts, David M. G. Tabord, and Lidija Zdravković.

  • 2020 David Hislop Award (The Offshore award from the Institution of Civil Engineers)  The paper "Full-scale observations of dynamic and static axial responses of offshore piles driven in chalk and tills",  Géotechnique: Vol 70, No. 6, 503–517, autored by Roisin Buckley, Richard Jardine, Stavroula Kontoe,  Pedro Barbosa and  Felix C. Schroeder has been awarded the 2020 David Hislop Award (also known as the Offshore award).

  • ASCE JGGE Editor's Choice Paper: The paper "Influence of Particle Size Distribution on the Proportion of Stress-Transmitting Particles and Implications for Measures of Soil State" authored by D.Liu, C.O'Sullivan and A. H. Carraro is the ASCE's Editor's Choice in Volume 147, Issue 3 of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

  • Hutchinson Lecture:  We are pleased to hear that the Joint Technical Committee (JTC1) on Natural Slopes and Landslides of the Federation of the International Geo-engineering Societies (FedIGS) is currently seeking nominations for the 2022 Hutchinson lecturer.  This lecture honours our former colleague Prof. John Hutchinson. 

  • Most downloaded paper for 2020:  The Géotechnique paper to accompany Prof. Richard Jardine's  Rankine Lecture  (Geotechnics, energy and climate change: the 56th Rankine Lecture) has been listed as ICE Top five most downloaded papers of 2020. 

  • MSc Course Director SECED Chair:  Dr. Stavroula Kontoe, course director of the MSc programme, is now chair of SECED (Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics)

  • ASCE JGGE Editor's Choice Paper:  The paper Large deformation finite element simulation of displacement pile installation experiments in sand, authored by Yang, Z.X., Gao, Y.Y., Jardine, R.J., Guo, Y.B. and Wang, D. (2020) was selected as a Editors Choice paper in June 2020 (ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. 146 (6) pp 15).
  • BGA MSc Dissertation Prize 2020:  We are delighted that former MSc student Gen Jie (Jay) Liang has been awarded the 2020 British Geotechnical Association Masters Dissertation Prize.  Jay's dissertation was entitled "Characterizing the variability of London Clay: a study of tunnel face logs from the JLEP between Green Park and Waterloo.".  The dissertation was carried out under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Standing.  ICE members can view Jay's presentation at the BGA annual conference here.
  • 2020 Telford Gold Medal - Best paper overall: This medal was awarded by the Institution of Civil Engineers for the paper  Pore water pressure and total horizontal stress response to EPBM tunnelling in London Clay authored by  M. S. P. Wan, J. R. Standing, D. M.Potts, J. B. Burland and published in Géotechnique
  • ASCE JGGE Editor's Choice Paper:  "Large Deformation Finite-Element Simulation of Displacement-Pile Installation Experiments in Sand" authored by Z. X. Yang; Y. Y. Gao; R. J. Jardine; W. B. Guo is the ASCE's Editor's Choice in Volume 146, Issue 6 of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.
  • New involvement with  TC221 Tailings and Mine Wastes Committee of the ISSMGE. Dr. Antonio Carraro has just been nominated by the BGA to represent the UK as a Nominated (i.e., voting) Member of the new TC221 Tailings and Mine Wastes Committee of ISSMGE: TC Website.
  • TVRG Early Careers Award: Tom Morgan won the Richard Fox Shield for his talk on identifying a hidden fault network under east London. This was awarded by the Thames Valley Regional Group (TVRG) of the Geological Society for their early careers competition. He will now go on to represent TVRG at the national-level competition held by the Geological Society in the New Year.  Details at this link.
  • Prof. Richard Jardine's Rankine lecture:  The full paper for this lectuer is now avaiable open-access via this link.
  • 2019 Fleming Award: We are delighted to hear that the Tideway East-Deptford Church St. Chalk Fissure Project was nominated for a 2019 Fleming Award.  Dr. James Lawrence contributed to this project, details are available here.
  • David Hislop Award:   The David Hislop Award (also known as the Offshore award)  for best paper on offshore matters was awareded to Ageing and cyclic behaviour of axially loaded piles driven in chalk; R. M. Buckley, R. J. Jardine, S. Kontoe, D. Parker and F. C. Schroeder:  Géotechnique (2018): https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/full/10.1680/jgeot.17.P.012
  • R. M. Quigley Award:  This award  is given to the best paper published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal in the preceding year.“Undrained behaviour of intact soft clay under cyclic paths that match vehicle loading conditions” (Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 2018, 55(1): 90-106, https://doi.org/10.1139/cgj-2016-0636
  • Soils and Foundations Best Paper Award:  This was awarded in May 2019 for Experimental and DEM assessment of the stress-dependency of surface roughness effects on shear modulus Otsubo, M. and O'Sullivan, C. Soils and Foundations Volume 58, Issue 3, June 2018, Pages 602-614 : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080618300349
  • EU students:  We are very happy to hear that the UK Government has confirmed that students with an EU fee status who are commencing or continuing their studies in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years will continue to pay the Home rate of tuition fees for the duration of their course: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/ug/fees-and-funding/tuition-fees/fee-status/.
  • 2019-2020 MSc Class: We are enjoying interacting with  our current cohort of MSc students. Find out more about our MSc course here.
  • Explanation of Liquefaction to Guardian:  In the aftermath of the Indonesia earthquake Dr. Stavroula Kontoe explained the mechanics of liquefaction to the Guardian Newspaper.
  • BGA Engineering in chalk 2018 conference: This event (www.chalk2018.org/) took place at Imperial in Sept. 2018, Dr. James Lawrence  was the organising secretary.  The proceedings were co-edited by Dr. James Lawrence and Dr. Roisín Buckley (www.icevirtuallibrary.com/isbn/9780727764072 ). A number of Imperial staff and students contributed to the proceedings and helped out during the conference.
  • Ground Engineering Awards (Aliki Kokkinou, MSc 2013/14) - Aliki was awarded the Rising Star Award at the Ground Engineering Awards https://awards.geplus.co.uk/winners-2017
  • Young Geotechnical Engineers Symposium (YGES 2018) - Sara Bandera and Sihua Chen won best presentations during the YGES 2018.  Sara won best overall presentation and will be presenting at the next BGA Annual Conference.
  • Best poster at this year's BGA Annual Conference - Hendarto Hendarto's poster won best poster at this year's BGA Conference,
  • 2018 Telford Gold Medal:  This prize was awarded to Dr Michael Wan, Dr Jamie Standing, Prof Dave Potts and Prof John Burland for their paper Wan, M.S.P., Standing, J.R., Potts, D.M. and Burland, J.B. (2017). Measured short-term subsurface ground displacements from EPBM tunnelling in London Clay.  Géotechnique, Vol. 67, No. 9, pp. 748-779.
  • Seminar: Associate Professor Md Mizanur Rahman,  University of South Australia gave a seminar on Equivalent state theory for constitutive modelling of silty sand  on  1st October 2019.  Details: Mizan Seminar‌
  • Seminar: Associate Professor Dipanjan Basu, University of Waterloo: A Generalized Framework for Static and Dynamic Analysis of Laterally Loaded Piles.  Room Skempton 207 Date: 26th Sept 2019 (Thursday) Time: 16:00.  Details: Basu Seminar Sept 26
  • Seminar: Dr. David Carrier: Geotechnical Properties of Lunar Soil –the four things you need to know.  Room Skempton 207 Date: 23rd Sept 2019 (Monday) Time: 16:00.  Details: David Carrier's Seminar
  • Sports Day:  Staff, PhD students. MSc students and their families enjoyed a day of cricket and football together in July 2019.  Find out more about student life here.
  • EU students:  We are very happy to hear that the UK Government has confirmed that students with an EU fee status who are commencing or continuing their studies in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years will continue to pay the Home rate of tuition fees for the duration of their course: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/ug/fees-and-funding/tuition-fees/fee-status/.
  • Graduation: We were delighted to see the MSc class of 2017-2018 at their graduation on May 8 2019, please see class photos and prize-presentations here.
  • ‌Seminar:  Prof. Shideh Dashti from the University of Colorado at Boulder visited our section on the 14th of May. She gave a presentation entitled "Physics-Informed Semi-Empirical Probabilistic Models for Predicting Building Settlement
    and Tilt on Liquefiable Ground".   Details: Prof. Shideh Dashti Seminar‌.
  • Seminar: Professor Vaughan Griffiths from  Colorado School of Mine gave a presentation entitled Risk Assessment in Geotechnical Enginering   on April 25th 2019. Details: "Prof. Vaughan Griffiths Seminar".
  • Rankine Day Seminar: In advance of the 2019 BGA Rankine lecture, Imperial College hosted, in collaboration with the BGA,  a half-day seminar on engineering solutions for resilient infrastructure.   Details: 2019 Pre-Rankine Seminar‌
  • Seminar: Prof. Rodrigo Salgado from Purdue University gave a talk on "Strategies for Realistic Simulation of
    Axial Loading of Foundations" on Jan 11 2019.
  • Sports Day:  Staff, PhD students. MSc students and their families enjoyed a day of cricket and football together in July 2018.  Find out more about student life here.
  • Seminar: Prof Paulo Coelho from the University of Coimbra, Portugal,delivered a seminar on Friday 13th July 2018 entitled "Mechanisms governing the performance of shallow foundations built on liquefiable ground”
  • Seminar: Prof. David Airey (University of Sydney) gave a talk on ‘Liquefaction of Cargos in Ships' in July 2018.  Details: David Airey Talk.
  • Seminar: On Wed July 4 2018 Dr. David Carrier gave a talk on secondary compression.
  • Evening Talk: On Tuesday April 17 2018 Dr. Laurie Wesley gave a talk about Prof. Bishop, a former professor in the geotechnics section.  Full details: Talk on Prof. Bishop‌
  • Effects of tunnelling on existing tunnels: On Wed April 25th 2018 there was be a seminar on the Effects of tunnelling on existing tunnels.  .
  • Research Highlighted in Daily Telegraph:  The Daily Telegraph has highlighted research by  Dr. Richard Ghail. You can read the article online.
  • Research Highlighted in Evening Standard: London's Evening Standard has highlighted ongoing research in the section by Christine Bischoff, a PhD student supervised by Dr. Richard Ghail.  You can read the article online.
  • International award for geotechnical engineering teaching:  The Soil Mechanics MSc Cluster Director, Dr. Stavroula Kontoe has been awarded the international 2017 Shamsher Prakash award for excellence in teaching of geotechnical engineering.
  • MSc Graduate Wins the Cooling Prize:  On Feb 28 2018, Joe Newhouse, who completed a MSc in soil mechanics and who now works at Mott MacDonald, was awarded 49th Cooling Prize by the British Geotechnical Association for his paper “Ground movement due to shaft construction” which is based on his MSc dissertation.
  • Unwin Prize Award for Geotechnics PhD Graduate:  Dr. Klementyna Gawecka has been jointly awarded the Unwin Prize for best PhD student by the Department of Civil Engineering.  Dr. Gawecka, who finished her PhD in 2017, is currently working as a teaching fellow in the Geotechnics Section.  
  • Celebrating 50 Years of Modified Cam Clay:  In March 2018 staff and students celebrated the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Modified Cam Clay Model with Prof. John Burland.
  • Landslide Talk: Prof. Paul Santi from the Colorado School of Mines will give a talk  on Friday 16th March, on "the Mechanics and Analysis of the Deadly West Salt Creek Landslide, Colorado” at 12 noon, in Room 207, Skempton Building.
  • 2018 Pre-Rankine Seminar: Prior to the BGA Rankine lecture on March 21, the Geotechnics Section  co-hosted, with the BGA,  a seminar on "Linking fabric, structure and soil behaviour: Recent advancements".  Details are given on the seminar programme.
  • Canadian Geotechnical Journal Editor's Choice recognition: A paper co-authored by Prof. Richard Jardine has been selected as one of the “Editor’s Choice” papers for 2018 by the Canadian Geotechnical Journal  in recognition of its high caliber and topical importance. The paper authored by Cai et al. (2018) is entitled "Undrained behaviour of intact soft clay under cyclic paths that match vehicle loading conditions". doi:10.1139/cgj-2016-0636 (Spiral http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/45598).
  • Centenary Enterprise Award: We are delighted to hear that two PhD students from the section, Giulia Ghiadistri and  Eli  Sailer were awarded the City and Guilds College Association Centenary Enterprise Award in Feb 2017.  This award recognizes the work Giulia and Eli did to organize the 2017 PhD Alumni reunion for PhD graduates from the section.
  • MSc Graduate Named New Face of Civil Engineering: Neeraj Kumar Sharma who graduaded with a MSc in Soil Mechanics and Environmental Geotechnics in 2014 has been named a 2018 ASCE New Face of Civil Engineering.
  • 2017 Fleming award: We are delighted to announce that the PISA project was the winner of the 2017 BGA Fleming Award competition held on 6th December 2017 at the ICE.  The PISA project team includes staff and researchers from the Imperial Geotechnics Section.
  • 2016 Geotechnical Research Medal:  Dr. Jamie Standing and Prof. David Potts have been awarded the 2016 Geotechnical Research medal for their paper entitled The use of kinematic hardening models for predicting tunnelling-induced ground movements in London Clay that was published in  Géotechnique 66(2).
  • Seminar: On Feb 22 2018 Dr. Jonathan Fannin, University of British Columbia gave a talk on "Improved dam safety risk management of internal erosion"
  •  Seminar: 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake    On Wed October 4th Dr. Liam Wotherspoon from the University of Auckland, New Zealand gave a talk on the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake, focussing on geologic, geotechnical and built environment impacts.   Full details: Liam Wotherspoon Talk Oct 2017.
  • A New Technologies Workshop was held at Imperial College London on 27th September.  This workshop will consider advanced remote sensing techniques – InSAR, LIDAR, hyperspectral imaging.  For further details contact Dr. Richard Ghail or refer to the workshop flier: New Technology Workshop Info
  • On Sept. 8th 2017 Prof. Kerry Rowe presented his Terzaghi Lecture "Protecting the Environment with Geotechnics" to the section.  Details: Kerry Rowe Seminar
  • On July 20 2017 Prof.  Marcelo Sanchez from Texas A+M gave a talk on gas hydrate bearing sediments to the Geotechnics Section.
  • We are still accepting applicants for entry to our MSc courses for the 2017-2018 academic year.  Scholarships are available to suitably qualified students thanks to the support of our bursary group.   Examples of the careers of graduates from the MSc. are on our alumni page. Please contact  Sue Feller for more details or download the MSc leaflet. ‌
  • On August 31 and Sept 1 there was  a workshop on Seepage Induced Instabilities held at Imperial College co hosted with the University of Sheffield in conjunction with the British Geotechnical Association and the British Dam Society.  Selected presentations are available here.  For more details please contact Catherine O'Sullivan‌.
  • Prof. Tom O'Rourke delivered 2016 Terzaghi Lecture at Imperial College on June 22 2017. 
  • MSc graduate, Aliki Kokkinou (MSc Soil Mechanics and Environmental Geotechnics 2013-2014) won the Ground Engineering Rising Star Award for 2017.
  • The 2017 Rankine Day seminar (co-organized with the British Geotechnical Association and the Institution of Civil Engineers) was on Recent Developments in Energy Geotechnics: Fundamentals to Applications.  For more details download the Energy geotechnics flier.‌
  • Professor Richard Jardine delivered the 56th Rankine Lecture on March 16 2016 to a record audience. Find details of the lecture, which was organized by the British Geotechnical Association.
  • Emeritus Professor John Burland has recently been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering. Find out more about this prestigious recognition.