The Faculty wishes to offer our congratulations to Winthrop Professor Barry Lehane, who was awarded the 2009 Telford Premium Prize by the UK Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for his paper with Research Fellow Mike Rattley (University of Southampton, UK) , Associate Professor Nilo Consoli (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Su, Brazil) and Senior Lecturer David Richards ( University of Southampton, UK) on "The uplift performance of shallow foundations with cement stabilised backfill".

This prize has been awarded for a paper which makes ‘a notable contribution to civil engineering literature'. The paper was published in 2008 by the ICE Ground Improvement journal.

This paper describes the results of a series of centrifuge model tests undertaken to investigate the effects of modifying a loose granular backfill using cement on the uplift performance of shallow anchors. These model tests, which involved a range of cement contents, are supported using a series of laboratory element tests and finite-element analyses.

The study indicates that significant increases in uplift stiffness and peak capacity can be achieved by the addition of relatively small quantities of cement. Such increases are, however, limited to relatively low uplift displacements because of the brittle nature of the improved backfill shear strength characteristics.

The Faculty is also pleased to acknowledge PhD Student Xiangtao Xu, who was awarded the Trollope Medal by the Australian Geomechanics Society for the following paper "Pile and penetrometer end bearing resistance in two layered soil profiles" Geotechnique, 58(3), 187-197 written jointly with Winthrop Professor Barry Lehane.

This medal is awarded "to the author of an outstanding paper on either theoretical or applied geomechanics". The work reported in the paper must have been undertaken in Australia by an author under 35 years of age.