Richard Wolters Prize 2012 – Procedure

Introduction
A new procedure for the award of the Richard Wolters Prize, which involved a presentation component, was trialed for the first time at the IAEG Congress in Auckland in 2010. Following recommendations of the judging panel for 2010, some further modifications have been made with the objective of attracting more young members of the engineering geology community to the IAEG and strengthening links between engineering geologists in industry and academia. A number of other changes, such as reducing the age criteria of applicants have also been recommended, and these changes will be considered by Council at the Banff meeting in June 2012 for implementation in 2014.

Background
The Richard Wolters Prize has been awarded biannually since 1986 to commemorate the life and work of Dr Richard Wolters, his significant achievements in the advancement of engineering geology and his important role in the development of the IAEG.

Procedure for Richard Wolters Prize Candidates for 2012
The Richard Wolters Prize for 2012 will be administered in the following way:
1. Selection by each IAEG National Group of their best young engineering geologist in a procedure which may vary per National Group. The selected engineering geologist must meet the age criteria set out in the Bylaws (that is be less than 40 years of age on 1 January 2012) and submit for evaluation one scientific publication (MSc or PhD thesis, or paper on a case history submitted to a conference or published in a (refereed) journal), his or her CV, and be able and willing to present a technical paper on the submitted publication in person orally at the Banff ISL-NASL2012 (note that only persons presenting their papers in Banff in person will be considered for the prize). Such presentations would be made immediately in association with the IAEG meetings immediately prior to the Conference and are not part of the formal technical programme of the conference .
2. Nomination by the National Groups of their candidate for the Richard Wolters Prize in an official letter with all documentation including identification of the paper to be presented, to the IAEG Secretary General by 03 December 2011. Where the candidate is from a country whose National Group is not active, self-nomination to the IAEG Vice President representing their part of the world can be made.
3. If the number of nominations exceeds 10, then the Executive Committee will, by 03 February 2012, make the selection of the 10 best candidates.
4. The National Groups will then be informed, four months before the Conference is held, if their nominee is invited to present her/his paper in Banff.
5. Competition will be held on Monday June 4, 2012. The Oral presentation is about 15 minutes (10 minutes presentation and 5 minutes mandatory question session to test knowledge of candidate ). Selection of the winner of the Richard Wolters Prize and runner-up will be made by a jury appointed by the IAEG Executive Committee. The winner will be informed before ‘Richard-Wolters Prize Luncheon’ on Thursday June 7, 2012. (submitted publication 30 %; CV 10 %; Oral presentation 60 %).
6. The presentation only of the 2012 RWP winner will be held during a ‘Richard-Wolters Prize Luncheon’ on Thursday June 7, 2012.

It is expected that the IAEG National Groups will support the travel costs, accommodation and (student rate) fee for Conference participation of their candidate. National Groups from low income countries and National Groups with very small numbers of members can apply for (partial) financial support by the IAEG solidarity fund in a letter to the IAEG President.