Concrete Evidence of Research Success

The Concrete Institute of Australia National Engineering Bursaries are biennial awards made to post graduate students studying engineering, chemistry, materials science, building science and other relevant subjects which contribute to the research knowledge base of concrete in Australia.

For the 2017 award, eligible theses are those completed in 2015 and 2016, the years prior to the Biennial Conference of the Concrete Institute.

The award is for excellence in thesis work on concrete and cement based products and processes.

The Concrete Institute of Australia (CIA) have awarded their 2017 National Bursary Award to Dr Ali Amin – CIES member and lecturer in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering..

The Institute’s judging panel recently completed reviewing all the theses that were submitted across Australia. The quality of the submissions according to the judges was extremely high, and whilst they found it an extremely difficult task to split them all, they unanimously selected the thesis “Post Cracking Behaviour of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concrete: From Material to Structure” by Dr Ali Amin as the winner of the 2017 National Engineering Bursary.

The Institute’s judging panel also determined that two theses should be recognised as Highly Commended and one of these was the thesis “Hygro-Thermo-Mechanical Study of Concrete Elements Subject to Elevated Temperatures: Assessment of Spalling Risk and Moisture Interactions”, by Dr James de Burgh.

Our heartiest congratulations to these two wonderful School researchers, and to their proud supervisor Professor Stephen Foster.

The 2017 National Engineering Bursary award comprises of the following:

• A cash prize of $2,500.00
• Registration, accommodation and fares to attend the Biennial Conference
• The opportunity to present a paper derived from the winning thesis at Concrete 2017
• The publishing of the paper in the official proceedings of Concrete 2017
• The publishing of the paper in Concrete in Australia magazine in December 2017

Both Dr Amin and Dr de Burgh have been invited to attend the CIA NSW Awards for Excellence breakfast at the Kirribilli Club on Wednesday 19th July 2017 where they will be recognised by their local peers. They will also be recognised at Concrete 2017 and the Awards for Excellence for their research work.