Recently, the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) announced the results of the Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award and held the award ceremony at the 20th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (20th ICSMGE) in Sydney last week. Professor Zhang Youhu from school of Civil Engineering was honored with this award.
Founded in 1936 at Harvard University in the United States, the ISSMGE, headquartered in London, has over 20,000 geotechnical engineering scholars and engineers from more than 90 member countries, making it the most globally influential academic organization in the field of geotechnics.
The Outstanding Young Geotechnical Engineer Award is nominated by the member countries' divisions and selected through international peer review organized by the ISSMGE. It is awarded every four years, with no more than three recipients per session, recognizing young scholars under the age of 36 who have made outstanding contributions to research and engineering practice in geotechnical engineering over the past four years.
Professor Zhang Youhu graduated with a bachelor's degree in Geotechnical Engineering from Jilin University in 2008. From 2009 to 2013, he pursued his Ph.D. in Marine Geotechnics at the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at the University of Western Australia. After completing his Ph.D. in 2013, he joined the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, a globally renowned consulting and research institution in the field of marine geotechnical engineering. In 2021, Professor Zhang joined our university as a high-level talent.
Professor Zhang has devoted his career to scientific research and engineering consulting in geotechnical engineering related to marine resource development. He brings extensive practical experience in marine engineering and a solid research foundation. He is a member of multiple international technical committees and academic organizations, actively participating in the development and revision of relevant international standards. He has published 21 academic papers as the first author or corresponding author in well-known journals in the fields of geotechnical and marine engineering, such as the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Computers and Geotechnics, Marine Structures, and Ocean Engineering. His outstanding achievements include contributions to the design and construction of foundations for self-elevating platform spud cans, steel piles, and negative suction caissons. Two of his research outcomes have been adopted by international standards ISO 19905-1 and ISO 19901-4. In particular, his universally applicable p-y spring model for steel piles under horizontal static and dynamic loads in clay has replaced the Matlock method, which had been used in the industry for nearly 50 years.
Award Ceremony Scene in Sydney, Australia, Announcing the List of Winners
