The then current President, Quentin Leiper, presented prizes to authors of the best 28 papers published in the Institution’s journals during 2006 at a major reception in London on 5 October 2007. The three top papers have also been made freely available online.
The annual awards ceremony recognises the outstanding quality and international reputation of ICE’s suite of 13 Proceedings journals and Géotechnique, which attract eminent authors from all corners of the globe and subscriptions from most of the world’s major engineering libraries.
Winners of the Telford Medal for best overall paper were Antonio Gens and Eduardo Alonso of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Their paper in Géotechnique provided a definitive account of how the Aznalcóllar tailings dam dramatically failed in 1998, inundating rivers and farmland with nearly 7 million m3 of acidic slurry.
Richard Fenner, Heather Cruickshank and Peter Guthrie from Cambridge University and Charles Ainger from MWH were awarded the George Stephenson medal for their paper in Engineering Sustainability, which provided much-needed guidance on how civil engineers can address the complexity of sustainable development.
Finally, the Baker Medal for the third-best paper went to US structural engineer Kent Hulet and Sheffield University lecturers Colin Smith and Matthew Gilbert for their paper in Bridge Engineering, which revealed the alarming possibility of masonry arch bridges losing up to half their strength when flooded.
Details of all ICE journals can be accessed via www.ice.org.uk/journals and details of all award-winning 2006 papers are at www.thomastelford.com/journals/freepapers.asp.
