The ISRM held its 2024 Council meeting on 23 September in New Delhi, India, in conjunction with the 13th Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium – ARMS13 and the 2024 International Symposium.
43 National Groups were represented at the Council, which was also attended by the Board members, the Past President Resat Ulusay, and observers from the Commissions and the National Groups.
Reports of the Board members and Board Cimmittees, as well as the forthcoming conferences were presented. Issues concerning the FedIGS were discussed
The annual Board meeting and the Commission meetings took place before the Council. Several well-attended courses and workshops took place during the 2 days preceding the conference.
Membership of the ISRM
The ISRM has a membership of approximately 9300 individual members and 167 corporate members, belonging to 61 National Groups. After two decades of continuous growth, the number of individual members has stabilized during the last two years. The National Groups of Morocco and Iran joined the Society during 2024.
2026 ISRM International Symposium will be held in Fukuoka, Japan
The National Groups of Macedonia and Japan presented excellent proposals to host the 2026 ISRM International Symposium. The Council, by secret ballot, selected the proposal by Japan, in Fukuoka, from 22 to 26 November, where the Board, Council and Commission meetings of 2026 will take place.
ISRM Award winners were announced
Rocha medal 2025
The Rocha Award Committee selected the winner of the Rocha Medal 2025 and two runners-up. Winner: Lucille Carbillet, FRANCE; Université de Strasbourg, FRANCE. Runners-up: Georgios Tzortzopoulos, GREECE – École Centrale de Nantes, FRANCE Quan Zhang, CHINA, China University of Mining and Technology, CHINA.
Science Achievement Award 2024: Weiren Lin, JAPAN; Pinnaduwa Kulatilake, SRI LANKA.
Young Rock Engineer Award 2024: Gabriel Walton, USA.
ISRM Board meeting held on 22 September
47th ISRM Online Lecture
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The 46th ISRM online lecture will be delivered by Prof. Ranjith Pathegama Gamage, from Australia. The lecture title is: “Deep Geothermal Energy: A Key Player in the Sustainable Energy Mix”. It will be broadcast on the 19th September at 10 A.M. GMT, from the Online Lecture’s page.
Prof. Ranjith Pathegama Gamage is a distinguished academic and researcher in the field of Geomechanics Engineering, currently holding a professorial position at Monash University. He obtained his BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. He then pursued his PhD at the University of Wollongong in Australia, where his research focused on multiphase flow in fractured rock media.
Prof. Ranjith began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he served for three years. He then joined Monash University, where he is currently the Professor of Sustainable Development of Energy and Resources. He is the founder and director of Deep Earth Energy Laboratory at Monash University.
Prof. Ranjith is a leading figure in sustainability, energy innovation, and geomechanics. His research tackles key challenges in sustainability, industry innovation, energy, and climate change, including advanced carbon sequestration and geothermal energy research. He also pioneers large-scale hydrogen storage in geological formations and innovative rock-breaking technology for mineral and energy extractions. Additionally, he invented eco-green cement made from waste materials to promote sustainability and achieve carbon neutrality. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including as Editor-in-Chief of the Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources journal.
Prof. Ranjith has an impressive portfolio of over 600 peer-reviewed publications, including 1 book, 10 book chapters, and 490 journal papers spanning Earth Sciences, carbon sequestration, and energy. His commitment to academic mentorship is evident in the successful guidance of over 100 PhD graduates, including two Rocha Medallists, and 40 postdoctoral scholars.
Throughout his career, Prof. Ranjith has been honoured with numerous accolades and fellowships. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, an International Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts.
The John Hudson Rock Engineering Award is conferred on individuals or companies in recognition of outstanding achievements in engineering practice.
Nominations for the award shall be by the chairs of the ISRM National Groups, who are kindly asked to spread this announcement through their members and to coordinate the nomination procedure. The deadline for submission of nominations for the John Hudson Rock Engineering Award 2024 is 23 April 2024.
More information on the Award can be found on the ISRM website.
ISRM Science Achievement Award 2024
In 2024 the Science Achievement Award will be conferred on ISRM individual members in recognition of one or more of the following contributions to the progress of the science of rock mechanics: – making an important advancement of knowledge; – proposing and confirming a new theory to explain certain phenomena.
Nominations for the award shall be by the chairs of the ISRM National Groups, which are kindly asked to spread this announcement through their members and to coordinate the nomination procedure. The deadline for submission of nominations for the 2024 ISRM Science Achievement Award is 23 April 2024.
More information on the Award can be found on the ISRM website.
ISRM Young Rock Engineer Award 2024
The ISRM Young Rock Engineer Award is conferred in recognition of one or more of the following achievements in rock engineering practice:
novelty of the nominee’s contribution to solve engineering problems and/or develop original design solutions;
pioneering in the use of materials and/or methods;
contribution to sustainable engineering practices;
contribution to and promotion of the engineering profession.
Nominations for the award shall be by the nominee’s National Group, or by some other person or organization acquainted with the nominee’s work. Self-nominations are not accepted. The deadline for submission of nominations for the 2024 ISRM Young Rock Engineer Award is 23 April 2024.
More information on the Award can be found on the ISRM website.
ISRM Newsletter No. 65 – Spring 2024
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The Spring 2024 issue of the ISRM Newsletter is available online.
45th ISRM Online Lecture, 13 March 2024 — Dr. Jonny Rutqvist
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The 45th ISRM online lecture will be delivered by Dr. Jonny Rutqvist, from USA. The lecture title is: “Coupled Processes Modeling in Energy Geosciences”. It will be broadcast on March 21st at 10 A.M. GMT, from the Online Lecture’s page.
Dr. Jonny Rutqvist is a Senior Scientist and Head of Hydrogeology Department, Energy Geosciences Division, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California. He holds a PhD degree in Engineering Geology from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. For over 30 years, Dr. Rutqvist’s research has been focused on geomechanics and modeling of coupled thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) processes in geological media. He developed the TOUGH-FLAC simulator for coupled multiphase fluid flow, thermal and mechanical processes analysis from the late 1990s. Since then the simulator has been further improved by himself and collaborators for a wide range of challenging geoscientific and geoengineering applications, including geologic carbon sequestration, nuclear waste disposal, geothermal energy extraction and underground energy storage.
Dr. Rutqvist is President of the ISRM Commission on Coupled Thermal-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Processes in Fractured Rock. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed journal papers and is a four-time recipient of the American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA) Awards.
The 44th ISRM online lecture will be delivered by Dr. Manchao He, from China. The lecture title is: “Possible strategy for landslide prediction”. It will be broadcast on December 14th at 10 A.M. GMT, from the Online Lecture’s page.
Dr. Manchao He began his academic journey at Changchun College of Geology, China, where he obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in Engineering Geology in 1981 and 1985 respectively. He furthered his education by obtaining a PhD in Engineering Mechanics from China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, in 1989, followed by a two-year post-doctoral study at the same institution. Then he was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Mons, Belgium, in 2012.
Since 1993, Dr. Manchao He has been a Professor of Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) at China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing. Later serving as the Director of the State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering-Beijing since 2008. He is currently an Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Argentine National Academy of Engineering (ANI). He mainly engaged in the research of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, including the prediction of landslides, mining technologies, rockburst mechanism and control, etc. He successfully self-developed a new monitoring system which measures the Newton Force Variation along the slip surface of landslide. It has been applied successfully in many practical projects, which makes a significant contribution to landslide disasters prediction and control. His expertise is highly sought after, leading him to consult on over 200 projects since 1991. He has authored more than 300 technical papers, and has been awarded 4 National Awards, 2 Chinese Outstanding Patented Invention and an International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) Technological Innovation Award.
Between 2015 and 2019, Dr. Manchao He served as ISRM Vice President at Large and the Chairman of ISRM Education Fund Committee. And now he is a Fellow of ISRM. In addition, Dr. Manchao He served as the President of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME) since 2016 and as the Vice President of International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR) since 2022.
