Outstanding Journal Paper Awards for 2015

The ASCE Forensic Engineering Division (FED) traditionally selects a paper published in this journal during the previous calendar year for our Outstanding Paper Award. This year, the Publications Committee, the Awards Committee, and the FED Executive Committee selected the paper, “Failure Investigation at a Collapsed Deep Excavation in Very Sensitive Organic Soft Clay,” by R. P. Chen, Z. C. Li, Y. M. Chen, C. Y. Ou, Q. Hu, and M. Rao. The paper appeared in the May/June 2015 issue [10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000557, 04014078].

The Journal Publications Committee noted that the paper provided an exemplary case study of a 15.7-m-deep excavation collapse investigation in Hangzhou, China. The authors state that site investigations prior to the design of the project were insufficient, so the site conditions were not revealed accurately. Moreover, site conditions had greatly changed owing to the collapse and a series of fillings and unloadings after the collapse. Hence, a more comprehensive site reinvestigation was carried out after the collapse. The reinvestigation was very comprehensive and well presented. The Publications Committee suggested that a student in a civil engineering foundations course could refer to it for many types of analysis.

Renpeng Chen, Ph.D. (Fig. 1) is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering and Dean in the College of Civil Engineering at Hunan University, China. Before he joined Hunan University in 2015, he was Professor at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Zhejiang University. He received his B.S. degree in civil engineering from Hunan University in 1994, his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geotechnical engineering from Zhejiang University in 1997 and 2001, respectively. Professor Chen’s main research interests are soil-structure interaction and transportation geotechnics, in particular, geotechnical problems associated with high-speed transportation infrastructure of highways, high-speed railways and airfields, tunneling, and pile foundations. He has authored or coauthored over 150 peer-reviewed publications, and has been responsible for many research contracts from both public institutions and companies. He has worked on more than 30 consulting projects regarding soil improvement and foundation design of power plants, transmission towers, wind farms, high-speed railways, and metro tunnels, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Pakistan. In recognition of his scholarly work and research, he was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Youth Scholars (2012), and the Ten Thousand Talent Program (2016) in China. He has also received the China Youth Science and Technology Award (2011).

Zhongchao Li, Ph.D. (Fig. 2) graduated from China University of Geosciences at Wuhan in 2009 with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. In 2009, he started six years of training and research in geotechnical engineering at Zhejiang University, and obtained his Ph.D. degree in geotechnical engineering under the supervision of Professor Renpeng Chen in 2015. As a Ph.D. candidate, his research focused on improving the understanding of safety and performance of deep excavations and shield tunneling in soft clay. Currently, Dr. Li works as a geotechnical engineer in the Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Company Limited, working primarily on construction of underground infrastructure projects, such as metro stations, metro tunnels, and pipelines in urban areas. His research focuses on the influence of deep excavations on nearby high-rise buildings, bridges, and tunnels.

Yunmin Chen, Ph.D. (Fig. 3) is Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Science. He received his B.S. degree in civil engineering in 1983, M.S. degree in structural engineering in 1986, and Ph.D. degree in geotechnical engineering in 1989 from Zhejiang University. Professor Chen worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Foundation Verification in the Netherlands from 1993 to 1995. His main research interests include soft soil mechanics and foundation engineering, soil dynamics and earthquake engineering, and geoenvironmental engineering. He has been involved with several large consulting projects, including the construction of the first airport runaway and high-speed railway on highly sensitive soft clay ground in China; the design of thermal power plant foundations on liquefiable ground in high seismic intensity areas in Indonesia; and the expansion project of the highest municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill in China. Professor Chen has authored or coauthored over 340 peer-reviewed publications. He received the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) outstanding Young Scientist Award, and three National Science and Technology Progress Awards. He serves as the co-editor in chief of the Journal of Transportation Geotechnics.

Chang-Yu Ou, Ph.D. (Fig. 4) is Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. He received his doctoral degrees from Stanford University in 1987. He has published many journal and conference papers concerning excavation problems. Professor Ou is former Dean of the College of Engineering at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He was also the director of the Ecological and Hazard Mitigation Engineering Research Center at the university. His areas of interest are deep excavations, soil behavior, soft ground tunneling, and ground improvement.

Qi Hu, Ph.D. (Fig. 5) is an Associate Professor at Zhejiang University of Technology in China. He received his B.S. degree in civil engineering in 2001, and his Ph.D. degree in geotechnical engineering in 2008, from Zhejiang University. Dr. Hu’s research focuses on soil mechanics, underground engineering, and foundation engineering. At present, he also works as the technical director in the Dongtong Geotechnical Science and Technology (Hangzhou) Company, Ltd., China.

Meng Rao (Fig. 6) is a nationally registered civil engineer of geotechnical engineering and general manager for Zhejiang Huadong Construction Co., Ltd., China. He received a B.S. degree in geotechnical engineering from Nanjing Architectural and Civil Engineering Institute in 1997, and a M.S. degree in civil engineering from Zhejiang University in 2012. He has been engaged in numerous geotechnical engineering projects, such as geotechnical investigation; marine and new-energy engineering investigation; investigation, design, and risk assessment of geological disaster prevention projects; and project management of water conservancy and hydropower engineering projects.

Other nominees for the Outstanding Paper Award were:

Congratulations are extended to each of these authors. Nominations submitted by journal readers were appreciated.