2021 JW Ridley Geomechanics Paper Award (every 3 years)
The call for nominations ended in 20 December 2020, and we received 6 papers for consideration. These were sent to the panel consisting of Mick Pender, Kevin McManus and CY Chin. Based on careful assessment, the panel was unanimous in recommending the following paper by Dr. Mark Stringer (Univ of Canterbury) as the recipient of the award:
• Stringer, ME (2019). Separation of pumice from soil mixtures. Soils and Foundations, 59(4): 1073-1084 (August 2019).
On 18/03/2021, a copy of the paper and the feedback from the panel members were circulated to the Management Committee members.
Student Poster Competition (annual)
The registration deadline was 11 December 2020, while posters were due 31 January 2021. We received 6 submissions, and they were assessed by a panel consisting of: Sally Hargraves, Tony Fairclough and Robert Hillier. Per the panel’s recommendation, the winners are:
1st Olivia ROSS / Julia YOUNG: Seismic and 1-D Compressibility Properties of Gravel-Rubber Mixtures (BE(Hons) student, University of Canterbury)
2ndBaqer ASADI: Liquefaction assessment of pumiceous soil: shear wave velocity-based method (PhD student, University of Auckland)
3rd Amelia LIN: Validation of a Geospatial Liquefaction Model (PhD student, University of Auckland)
NZGS Scholarships (biennial)
There were 4 applications received; 1 withdrew and 2 were shortlisted by the panel (consisting of CY Chin, Eleni Gkeli & Sally Dellow). The two applicants were interviewed by the panel separately last 11 February. Following the interview, the panel requested further clarifications/refinements of the submitted research proposals. Last 10 March, one of the applicants withdrew due to work commitments. And on 16 March, the remaining applicant submitted her response to the panel’s request.
As of this writing, the panel is still considering if the remaining candidate (applying to support further research post-PhD) will be given the scholarship (or not) with/without conditions. Update will be provided once a decision is made.
