Application for distinguished Prize now open for Young Researchers and Professionals

Go for Candidates of COSUF Award 2016!

Lausanne (CH), November 2015.- The Presentation of the COSUF Award Winner on the ITA COSUF meeting is every year one of the highlights. The prestigious award is granted annually to a student, young professional or researcher less than 35 years old who has recently completed an outstanding research work in theory or practice in the field of operational safety or security of underground facilities. To develop the culture and knowhow of scientists and practitioners is a basic idea of ITA COSUF and this is a main motivation to offer the COSUF Award.

The COSUF Award

To win the COSUF Award means to get an invitation attending the award ceremony 2016 including travelling and accommodation expenditures, a 1,000 Euro Prize and the award certificate.

The Award Ceremony

The ITA COSUF Award 2016 will be presented during the ITA COSUF Workshop in Fall 2016. As every year and also as a special opportunity the winner shall have the chance to present her/his own work during a plenary session of the workshop.

Applicants younger than 35 years

Every student, young professional or researcher less than 35 years old may apply for the COSUF Award. A second requirement is a recently or in the last 2 years completed research 2 work in theory and/or in practice in the field of operational safety and security of underground facilities. Applicants need not to be member of ITA COSUF.

Deadline 29 February 2016

The application in English should be received latest on 29 February 2016 at the ITA secretariat in Lausanne/CH. Additional information like the contents of the COSUF Award application file is available on the ITA COSUF website www.ita-cosuf.org.

COSUF Award: Focus on new generation

"We wish to attract the interest of the new generation of professionals on safety and security of underground facilities" described Dr. Roland Leucker, chairman of ITA COSUF, the motivation for the ITA COSUF Award. One of the highlights of the annual ITA COSUF meeting in Dubrovnik/Croatia was the presentation of the ITA COSUF Award Winner 2015, Karl Fridolf from Sweden. With the prestigious award in his hands he presented his honoured thesis on evacuation in rail tunnels like a professional. Fridolf explained the aspects of evacuation through smoke, the design of evacuation systems for rail tunnels and gave examples how to realise this under the given circumstances.

ITA COSUF Award Winners of last years

The first ITA COSUF Award received Ben Nieman in 2009 for his master thesis at the University of Delft, the Netherlands, entitled: “Cracking on the Unheated Side during a Fire in an Immersed Tunnel”. From both a practical and theoretical side, the thesis deals with a lurking problem of large cracks at the fire-unexposed side of tunnel linings. This is especially relevant for immersed and cut-and-cover tunnels.

The 2010 Award was conferred to Stefan Kratzmeir from Germany for his excellent record on tunnel safety research. He worked as a scientific manager and guided R&D applications. Kratzmeir contributed to European projects like UPTUN, FIT and the German research project SOLIT in a high-level manner, always with a focus on the development of fire fighting and the acceptance of fixed fire fighting systems.

In 2012, the ITA COSUF Award was granted to Ying Zhen Li of SP Technical Research Institute (Sweden) for his work on fire dynamics in tunnels. The work of Ying Zhen Li on the latest advance of research on tunnel fire dynamics was included in the September 2012 issue of the ITA COSUF Newsletter.

In 2013, the award was handed over to Enrico Ronchi for his contribution in the area of Evacuation Modelling in Road Tunnel Fires combining various evacuation models to increase the reliability of predictions regarding human behaviour, validated by tests. The corresponding paper of his presentation was included in the September 2013 Newsletter.

In 2014, the award was granted to Francesco Colella for his work on modelling of tunnel ventilation systems with a multi-scale model. His paper has been printed in the COSUF newsletter in September 2014.

Centre of Excellence ITA COSUF is the first committee of the ITA, the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, founded in 2005. It is the Centre of Excellence consisting of approx. 80 corporate member organisations and companies from 25 countries all over the world. The World Road Association PIARC is also supporting ITA COSUF. Since the very first beginning COSUF is a platform for communication on operational safety and security in underground facilities. Only the best specialists in the field of tunnelling are discussing in four different activity groups about the latest developments.

Joining ITA COSUF is very easy. It´s not needed to be an ITA member and for this reason ITA COSUF welcomes corporate and individual members.

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