Hélder Sousa, an assistant researcher at the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), has been honoured with the “Early Career Prize” awarded by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). The award, which will be presented to him in November this year in Zurich, Switzerland, recognises his work in the field of risk assessment and resilience of existing structures and infrastructures.
The Early Career Prize was created in 1983 to honour and encourage a member at the beginning of their career for outstanding achievements in structural engineering. The prize is awarded to an individual member up to the age of 40.
Hélder Sousa, also a lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho, obtained his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at UMinho and his main current research topic includes the reliability and resilience of structures and infrastructures. He is also chair of IABSE TG 5.8 on “Resilience of Existing Structures” and technical coordinator of several national and international projects involving predictive modelling and management of road and railway assets. His work covers probabilistic and numerical analyses of existing structures and has already been implemented in different relevant real-life cases, such as UNESCO historic sites like the castle of Guimarães and the Convent of Christ in Tomar.
Hélder Sousa teaches on several international master’s courses and has published more than 110 scientific and technical articles (journals and conferences), including 47 articles in ISI journals, 8 non-ISI, 65 conference papers, one book and four book chapters.
The ISISE researcher joined IABSE in 2017 and was secretary of the Scientific Committee of the IABSE Symposium that took place in Guimarães in 2019. Since then he has actively contributed to various IABSE Boards and Committees. This international organisation highlights Hélder Sousa’s profile as “an early career engineer who exhibits the IABSE spirit of liaison between different professionals, society and intergenerational cooperation for the benefit of society in the field of structural engineering”.
IABSE was founded in 1929 and operates worldwide in all fields of planning, design, construction, maintenance and repair of civil engineering structures. IABSE’s mission is to promote the sharing of knowledge and boost the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profession and society.
