The YMPG in collaboration with the Organising Committee for the 16ICGE (16th International Conference on Geotechnical Engineering) would like to announce the winners of the Bright Spark Lecture Award to two distinguished young geotechnical engineers: Dr. Subhani Medawela and Dr. Shay Haq. They are both invited to give keynote lectures at the 16ICGE in Lahore, Pakistan, on 7-8 December 2022.
- Dr. Subhani Medawela (32 years old), Research Fellow, Faculty of EIT, University of Technology (UTS), Sydney, Australia
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Permeable reactive barriers for remediating acidic groundwater in pyritic terrain." - Dr. Shay Haq (29 years old), Ph.D. from University of Technology (UTS), Sydney, Australia
Bright Spark Lecture Title: "Particle scale modelling of internal instability."
The Bright Spark Lecture Award was established to promote young members of the ISSMGE to play a major role in various international and regional conferences. Recipients of this award are invited to give a keynote lecture at ISSMGE conferences. All Technical Committee conference organisers and Member Society conference organisers are encouraged to select Bright Spark Lecturers at their conferences. Details regarding the award can be found on the ISSMGE website: https://www.issmge.org/the-society/awards/bright-spark-lecture-award.
We invite everyone, especially young geotechnical engineers, to come and enjoy the lectures. We hope these lectures can inspire and motivate us further to excel in our beloved field, geotechnical engineering.
Winners Bio
Dr. Subhani Medawela
Subhani Medawela, a recipient of the International Postgraduate Tuition Award from the University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia, completed her doctoral degree under the supervision of distinguished professor Buddhima Indraratna. Subhani was awarded the Examiners` commendation for outstanding PhD thesis in 2020, and also won the Coffey-UOW award in 2019, awarded to the student with the best postgraduate performance in Geotechnical research. Also, she was one of the three finalists in the NSW Research Award competition organised by the Australian Geomechanics Society in 2018 to recognize outstanding research in NSW Universities. Upon completing her PhD in 2020, Subhani was appointed as the Research Fellow of a linkage project funded by Australian Research Council in collaboration with University of Technology Sydney and industry partners. Her research mainly focuses on Geo-Environmental solutions to treat contaminated groundwater in acidic terrains. Subhani has introduced innovative mathematical and numerical models to assess coupled bio-geochemical clogging of granular barriers used to treat acidic groundwater.
Dr. Shay Haq
Dr. Shay Haq received his PhD from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia in 2022. He received funding for his PhD from the Australian Research Council and Transport Research Centre at UTS. He has published several Q1 journal papers from his PhD. He has a masters degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand. He received Chin Fung Kee and AIT Alumni Association Awards during his masters studies at AIT. He obtained his bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore Pakistan. He was awarded with a gold medal for the best performance in the subjects of soil mechanics and foundation engineering during his bachelors degree program. He worked for two years in industry with National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) Pvt. Ltd. on various small- and large-scale dam projects including the rehabilitation and strengthening of Mangla reservoir rim.