Ana Ramos, former student of the PhD Programme in Civil Engineering of the School of Engineering of the University of Minho was recognised, on 14 November last, with the José Folque – Young Geotechnicians Prize, awarded by the Portuguese Society of Geotechnics, during the 11th Meeting of Young Geotechnicians, which took place during the 17th National Congress of Geotechnics, in Lisbon.

Ana Ramos was awarded the José Folque – Young Geotechnicians Prize (English Language), for the work developed during her PhD project entitled “Assessment of the Long term Dynamic Behaviour of Innovative Railway Track Solutions”, focused on the development of methodologies able to predict the short and, above all, long term dynamic behaviour of different railway track systems, especially in transition zones. This work was supervised by António Gomes Correia, Full Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Minho and researcher at ISISE, and by Rui Calçada, Full Professor of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and researcher at CONSTRUCT.

This award, given annually since 1984-1985, distinguishes the works that best contribute to the progress of technical and scientific knowledge in the area of Geotechnics, as well as to the resolution of problems in this field at a national level within the domain of Geotechnical specialties contemplated by the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). As a result of this distinction, the researcher will represent Portugal in the next International Conference of Young Geotechnical Engineers, through the Portuguese Society of Geotechnics (SPG).