Introduction
The Cooling Prize competition is held annually by the British Geotechnical Association (BGA) and is named after Dr Leonard Cooling, one of the founders of British Soil Mechanics, a former chair of the BGA, and the 2nd Rankine Lecturer. The Cooling Prize competition is intended for professionals in the geotechnical/ground engineering industry in the early stages of their careers.
This event is hosted by the ICE Wales Cymru Regional Group. Advance booking is required for this event, via the button further down this page.
At the event there will be a short presentation on the history of the Competition, presented by Stephanie Markvukaj.
The four finalists will then present their papers.
The Cooling Prize Finalists are:
George French of OGI Groundwater Specialists Ltd – The design and management of a groundwater control system for the construction of a box culvert during a four-day railway blockade in Littleborough, Rochdale.
Domenico Gallese of Arup – Simplified procedures for the seismic design of monopile-supported offshore wind turbines.
Steven Pryce of COWI – Risk Based Assessment of Settlement in Anisotropic soils using back-analysis.
Diarmid Xu of the University of Cambridge – Response of rock-scour protection to earthquake induced liquefaction for offshore wind applications.
The Cooling Prize judges will be:
- Nicolas Armstrong (Chief Judge) – Fugro & BGA Executive Committee Member
- Stan Qi (Last year’s Cooling Prize winner) – Atkins
- Kevin Power – Technical Director at WSP & ICE Wales Committee Member
- Stephanie Markvukaj – Mott MacDonald & BGA Executive Committee Member.
After the presentations, while the judges consider their verdict, a short keynote lecture will be given by Professor Snehasis Tripathy of Cardiff University on 'Climate Change – Challenges Ahead for Geotechnical Engineers'.
The winner of the 54th Cooling Prize will be announced at the end of the evening.
After the event, attendees of the Cooling Prize are invited to join the Welcome Reception for the BGA Geo-Resilience conference from 19:30 – 21:00 at the Centre for Student Life at Cardiff University.