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An undergraduate student specialising in civil engineering has been awarded the 23rd annual prize in Geomechanics (known as the GFWA Prize).

Matthew Bell, a student of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, is working under the supervision of Professor Barry Lehane investigating the performance of piles under lateral cyclic loading.

“Matthew Bell is a worthy winner of this year’s competition. He exemplifies all that is good about conducting research at one of the leading universities in the world in Geomechanics. His project focusses on a topic of major interest around the world with the rapidly developing wind energy sector,” said Professor Lehane.

According to Professor Lehane, Matthew’s major achievement was in his distillation of a series of complex experimental results into simple, practical  conclusions.

The GFWA Prize is sponsored by GFWA Pty Ltd and awarded by the Australian Geomechanics Society for the best paper presentation by a final year student in the area of Geomechanics at universities in Western Australia. Students are invited to give a 12 minute presentation to a panel of experts and the winner is chosen based on the overall quality of the project, the written paper and standard of presentation on the night.

Pictured (left to right): Matthew Bell accepts prize from Mr. Babak Hamidi (marketing manager for GFWA Pty Ltd).

Media references

Mary Schultz (Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics) (+61 8) 6488 1868