October 2, 2014
Rail expert honoured with prestigious international engineering medal
Professor Buddhima Indraratna receives prestigious international award for work that is revolutionising rail infrastructure.
Professor Indraratna, from the Centre for Geomechanics and Railway Engineering at the School of Civil, Mining and Environmental Engineering, and a Program Leader of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Geotechnical Science and Engineering was awarded the Chandra S Desai Medal by the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) at its 14th conference, held in Kyoto recently.
The Chandra S Desai medal is highly regarded in the international geotechnical community and is awarded every three years by the IACMAG. Emeritus Professor Desai, of the University of Arizona, USA, was an early pioneer of the modern day analytical and numerical methods in Civil Engineering.
The medal is awarded in recognition of individuals, who have made significant contributions in research and higher education in geomechanics – the study of theoretical and applied rock and soil mechanics - particularly in computational modelling, laboratory and field-testing, computer methods and their applications in geotechnical practice.
The award also gives special consideration to non-traditional approaches such as combination of basic and practical aspects, multidisciplinary efforts, and the integration of research and teaching in geomechanics.
The IACMAG medal citation for Professor Indraratna noted his “…leadership and outstanding contributions to ground improvement and railway geomechanics through fundamental and applied research making a substantial impact on industry, and for his dedication towards advancing higher education in geotechnical engineering”.
Over the past 15 years, Professor Indraratna and his fellow researchers have developed numerous experimental, analytical and numerical approaches that simulate the rail track behaviour under high dynamic and impact loads, as well as mechanics of prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) and vacuum preloading including both two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer models and rigorous design methods for port reclamation and coastal ground improvement.
Emeritus Professor Chandra S. Desai (left), presents UOW's Professor Buddhima Indraratna with the Chandra S Desai Medal at the 14th IACMAG Conference in Kyoto, Japan.
Professor Indraratna, a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), has published more than 500 articles in refereed journals and conferences, is the author of six books and has supervised over 40 PhD students. These significant efforts reflect his contributions across a wide range of subject areas covering soft clay engineering, ground improvement, transportation geomechanics, embankments and dam engineering, waste materials utilisation and physical modelling of geotechnical processes.
In recognition of his efforts towards rail innovations, he was also awarded the Engineers Australia Transport Medal (2011), Eurasian University Medal (2012) and 2009 Business-Higher Education Round Table award sponsored by the Australian Commonwealth, among others.
Professor Indraratna’s research team was recently awarded a $1.2 million Federal Government Linkage grant, the biggest ever awarded to UOW’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, to solve problems with soft clay along Australia’s coast, which creates challenges in designing and building transport infrastructure such as rail lines.
This together with an ARC-LIEF grant totalling $1.7 million will help build arguably the world's best high-speed rail testing facility affiliated to UOW’s SMART Infrastructure Facility.