ISRM Council Meeting, 16 October 2022: News Release

The ISRM held its 2022 Council meeting on 16 October in Asunción, Paraguay, in conjunction with the Latin American Rock Mechanics Symposium LARMS2022 and 2022 ISRM International Symposium. 45 National Groups were represented at the Council, which was also attended by the Board members, the Past President Eda Quadros and observers from the National Groups. The annual Board meeting and the Commission meetings took place before the Council. 

Membership of the ISRM

The ISRM has an all-time record of 8911 individual members and 174 corporate members, belonging to 58 National Groups. The National Group of Sri Lanka was approved in the Board meeting.

2024 ISRM International Symposium will be in New Delhi, India

The National Groupof India presented an excellent proposal to host the 2024 ISRM International Symposium in New Delhi. Being the only application received for this year, the Council approved it by acclamation.

Korea to host the 16th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics in 2027

Three National Groups presented excellent proposals to host the 16th ISRM International Congress on Rock Mechanics in Beijing, China, in Christchurch, New Zealand and in Seoul, Korea. The Council selected the Korean proposal. The Congress will take place 17-23 October 2017.

Derek Martin,from Canada, will receive the 9th Müller Award

The Müller Award is the most prestigious award of the ISRM, made once every four years at the ISRM Congress, in recognition of distinguished contributions to the profession of rock mechanics and rock engineering. Four nominations were received: Derek Martin from Canada, Manchao He from China, Marc Panet from France and Nielen van der Merwe from South Africa. Prof. Derek Martin was selected by the Council to receive the award. He will deliver the Müller Lecture during the 16th ISRM International Congress in Salzburg, Austria, in October 2023.

ISRM Award winners were announced

Rocha medal 2023: The Rocha Award Committee selected the winner of the Rocha Medal 2021 and two runners-up.
Winner: Jun Zhao, from China, with the thesis "Study on time-dependent failure mechanism and long-term stability of hard rock in deep buried tunnel" presented at the Northeastern University, China.
Runner-up: Rupesh Verma, from India, with thw thesis "A combined theoretical-experimental-numerical approach to characterization and modelling of rock fracture and rock burst" presented at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
Runner-up: Cyrille Couture, from Canada, with the thesis "Mechanical characterization of porous sandstones in true triaxial conditions: diffuse and localized deformation, effect of anisotropy" presented at the Université Grenoble Alpes, France.

John Hudson Rock Engineering Award 2022: This award Is conferred on individual or corporate members of the ISRM in recognition of achievements in engineering practice and was given to Dr Christine Detournay, USA.

Science Achievement Award 2022: This award recognizes outstanding contributions to science and technology in the field of rock mechanics and rock engineering, and was conferred on Prof. Jean Sulem, nominated by the NG France.

Young Rock Engineer Award 2022: This award acknowledges excellence in the field of rock engineering by ISRM members who are in early stages of their career and was conferred on Dr Yota Togashi, nominated by the NG Japan.

ISRM Board meeting held on 14-15 October 

The ISRM Board met in a physical meeting from the first time since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic prior to the Council meeting. However, four Board members could not travel and the meeting was also attended by them by videoconference. A detailed discussion on the past activities took place and decisions were taken for future activities.