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KAUST Professor J. Carlos Santamarina and postdoctoral fellow Junghee Park receive 2019 Tarek Al-Kasabi Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering in Saudi Arabia

​KAUST Professor J. Carlos Santamarina and postdoctoral fellow Junghee Park received the 2019 Tarek Al-Kasabi Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering in Saudi Arabia at a ceremony on April 11 at King Saud University.

The Al-Kasabi award began in 2015 through the endowment of Engineer Tarek Al-Kasabi and is given annually to engineers, scientists or researchers in the Kingdom who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to civil engineering. The award, which is administered by the Department of Civil Engineering at King Saud University, consists of a personalized plaque, a certificate and a cash prize of SAR 100,000.

KAUST Professor J. Carlos Santamarina (right) and postdoctoral fellow Junghee Park (left) received the 
2019 Tarek Al-Kasabi Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering in Saudi Arabia for their research work. File photos.

Santamarina and Park noted that their work "builds on 100 years of geotechnical engineering research and practice that allows us to advance the 'physics-inspired and data-driven' Revised Soil Classification System. This development is the first step for a new era in geotechnical engineering that will benefit from simple yet robust index testing coupled with extensive material databases and multiphysics tools to provide a self-consistent set of engineering parameters for design. This is a critically needed development to overcome the inherent danger in complex computer-based analyses that are overtaking today's geotechnical engineering."

During their acceptance speeches at the award ceremony, Santamarina and Park expressed their gratitude to Dr. Abdullah Almajed from King Saud University for his nomination; the Scientific Committee, who recognized the value of their research efforts; and to Engineer Tarek Al-Kasabi for his vision and generosity.

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