2025 NSW Research Award Night

As part of their ongoing support of academic institutions and students, the Sydney and Newcastle Chapters of the Australian Geomechanics Society are offering the prestigious AGS NSW Research Award for research in Geotechnical Engineering or Engineering Geology. The award aims to provide a forum for research students from NSW universities to showcase their research to the wider Geotechnical Community.

Important Dates

Closing date for abstract submissions: 31st March 2025
Closing date for report submissions 14th May 2025
Selection of Three Finalists  11th June 2024
Finalists Presentation (Newcastle) 17th July 2025
Finalists Presentation (Sydney) 13th August 2025

Eligibility

The award is open to:

Candidates must preferably be current research students (i.e. No PhD awarded at the time of the application) or research students that have been awarded their PhD within a year of the event. Also, they must not have applied for the AGS YGP award in the current year. However, unsuccessful candidates who have previously applied for  this award and remain to be current research students are eligible to reapply for the current Research Award.

Submissions

The submission for the Award shall comprise a report, with a geotechnical engineering or engineering geology theme, of no more than 3,500 words, giving a broad summary of the research. The report shall cover the research questions and rationale, the scope of the research, the most important results, and conclusions. The submission must be detailed enough to convey the full impact and significance of the research and should be accompanied by selected tables and figures. The student must be the sole author of the submitted report. The AGS may request supporting documentation from the candidate’s supervisor, and the supervisor’s details must be provided in the submission. The finalists will be expected to provide a written paper (with any co-authors as appropriate), which complies with the editorial requirements of the Australian Geomechanics journal (obtainable from the Australian Geomechanics Society website). The written paper must be substantially new, encompassing unpublished material, and a statement of this must accompany the written paper.

Presentation

The finalists will be required to give a special presentation of their work to members of the AGS Sydney Chapter. The presentations need to be targeted at the audience – geotechnical professionals working in the industry.

The AGS will pay the reasonable out-of-town transport and accommodation costs of the finalists.

Evaluation of Submissions

Written submissions will be assessed by a Review Panel. The Review Panel will select up to three finalists, who will be invited to present their submissions at AGS technical meetings in Sydney. The winner will be selected by the Review Panel at the end of their presentation on the basis of the selection criteria below. The decision of the Review Panel will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

Review Panel

The Review Panel will consist of:

Selection Criteria

TOTAL 100%

Publishing

It is expected that written papers will be prepared by the finalists for publishing in Australian Geomechanics.

Sponsorship

The event organisers would welcome a company to sponsor the event. Expressions of interest can be made to Stefano Pirrello via [email protected]

About the presenters

Isabella Novais Silva University of Technology Sydney

Isabella Novais Silva is a Geotechnical Engineer at KBR. She recently completed her PhD at the Transport Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil. Her research focuses on enhancing the stability and resilience of railway infrastructure, with particular emphasis on the behaviour of soft soils, soil stabilisation techniques, and sustainable infrastructure solutions. Her work addresses critical challenges in subgrade performance under dynamic loading, examining the role of fabric in influencing soil behaviour. Furthermore, she explores sustainable alternatives to ground improvement, including the use of recycled glass in subgrade applications. Isabella’s contributions have been recognised through high-impact publications and awards, including the ISSMGE Bright Spark Lecture Award in 2024, reflecting her commitment to advancing safe, sustainable, and innovative geotechnical practices.

Maria Julieta Rottemberg University of New South Wales

Maria Julieta Rottemberg is a passionate Civil Engineer from Argentina, currently completing her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She moved to Sydney in 2019 to pursue a Master of Engineering Science, and her outstanding academic performance earned her a prestigious Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship to continue into doctoral research.

Julieta’s research focuses on the thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of energy geostructures, with a particular emphasis on energy tunnels—an innovative approach to integrating geothermal energy with underground infrastructure. Her work sits at the forefront of energy geotechnics, leveraging advanced numerical modelling techniques to investigate the coupled interactions between heat transfer, moisture flow, and mechanical behaviour in underground structures. It draws on advanced expertise in simulating multi-phase porous media, including the implementation of state-of-the-art constitutive soil models and coupled multiphysics analyses, offering novel insights into the complex behaviour of energy tunnels under realistic environmental and loading conditions.

Beyond theoretical contributions, Julieta’s work provides a scientifically rigorous and practically oriented framework for the design and optimisation of tunnels with geothermal capabilities. By integrating high-fidelity numerical simulations with experimental validation, she advances sustainable geotechnical solutions with direct applications in infrastructure resilience, renewable energy integration, and climate-adaptive urban planning.

She is an active member of the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS) and the Australian Tunnelling Society (ATS), through which she continues to engage with industry and academic leaders in geotechnical and tunnel engineering. Julieta aspires to help bridge the gap between engineering practice and sustainability, contributing to a future where underground infrastructure strengthens urban environments, enhances quality of life, and accelerates the transition to clean energy.

Farshad Bahootoroody University of Newcastle

Farshad Bahootoroody is a PhD student in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Newcastle, entitled “Efficient Geotechnical Risk Management of Scenic Rock Cliffs”. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s degree in Civil-Geotechnical Engineering. Farshad has actively collaborated on diverse research projects with institutions and universities across Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK,  and Australia. His research contributions have resulted in the publication of ten peer-reviewed journal papers and two conference papers, collectively cited 243 times on Google Scholar. In 2024, he was awarded a Postgraduate Research Prize by the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle.

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