56th Cooling Prize Competition 2025

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 Yorkshire Geotechnical Group. Please note that advanced booking is required for this meeting.

At the event there will be a short presentation on the history of the Competition.

The four finalists will then present their papers.

After the presentations, while the judges consider their verdict, there will be a short keynote lecture by Professor Fleur Loveridge.

The winner of the 56th Cooling Prize will be announced at the end of the evening.

The Cooling Prize Finalists

Serena Pak Chi Che – Geotechnical Consulting Group

Overcoming challenges in horizontal directional drilling (HDD) with geotechnical engineering

Serena is a senior geotechnical engineer at Geotechnical Consulting Group (GCG). She joined GCG after she completed her MSc in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College London. She has worked closely with developer and contractor clients within the UK and internationally, with a focus on horizontal directional drilling (HDD), site characterisation, and offshore energy projects. From 2022 to 2023, Serena took up a technical advisory role as the on-site geotechnical engineer for an offshore wind developer for their cable landfall HDD works for an offshore windfarm. During her site work, she contributed to overcoming several interesting geotechnical and drilling-related challenges.

Maria Chalakatevaki – University of Cambridge

A geotechnical plasticity framework for cable-seabed interaction modelling

Maria Chalakatevaki is a PhD candidate within the Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group and the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in “Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Resilience in a Changing World (FIBE2)” at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on geotechnical stability modelling for static subsea power cables with the goal of promoting an innovative framework to enhance soil-structure interaction modelling for offshore wind applications. Prior to her PhD, she obtained an MEng from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and an MRes from the University of Cambridge.

Alexander Swallow – University of Oxford

Grout Injection in Open Caisson Shaft Construction

Alexander Swallow is a fourth-year PhD student at the University of Oxford, where he is researching ways to reduce carbon emissions in underground construction, with a focus on microtunnelling and open caisson shafts. His work spans advanced laboratory modelling, case studies, and numerical simulations to enhance design, reduce material use, and optimise construction methods. Alexander’s research has been published in leading journals, including Géotechnique and the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

James Creasey – University of Bristol

ROBOCONE p-y module: A new site investigation tool

James Creasey is a final year PhD student at the University of Bristol, where he is researching and developing a new in-situ site investigation tool – The ROBOCONE p-y module. Prior to his PhD studies, James achieved his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Surrey and gained over 2 years industry experience working for a civil engineering contractor on railway slope stabilisation projects.

Keynote lecture

While the judges deliberate, there will be a short keynote lecture from Fleur Loveridge, Professor of Geo-Energy Engineering at the University of Leeds. Fleur’s research focuses on how we can use the ground for heat transfer and storage to help decarbonise energy supply, as well as how we can make our infrastructure more resilient to climate change. Before moving to academia 15 years ago, she was a consulting engineer working on the design, construction, assessment and repair of new and existing geotechnical infrastructure. Her paper on determination of prop loads for deep excavations at Ashford on High Speed 1 won the Cooling Prize in 2001. In this short talk Fleur will look back on this time and reflect on what she learnt from both the experience of working on HS1 construction, and specifically from engaging with the Cooling Prize.