Professor Michael Winter receives the John Mitchell Award

Professor Michael Winter receives the John Mitchell Award

The BGA is pleased to announce that Professor Michael Winter has received the 2022 John Mitchell Award

The British Geotechnical Association (BGA) is pleased to announce that Professor Michael Winter of Winter Associates has received the 2022 John Mitchell Award. He received the Award at an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Awards Ceremony in October 2022 and will give the BGA John Mitchell Lecture in January 2023.

The John Mitchell Award is presented annually by the ICE, based on a nomination from the BGA, for significant contributions in the field of geotechnical engineering. The award was instituted in 2008 in memory of the prominent geotechnical engineer John Mitchell of Arup, who was killed while observing piling works at a central London site in 1990.

The award criteria considered by the BGA include the following:

• In reflection of John Mitchell’s career, selection will favour practical applications of up to date geotechnical concepts or models (rather than advanced theoretical academic practice).
• The BGA will consider individuals, like John, who in the course of their careers via incremental works have made significant contribution to geotechnical practice.
• Notwithstanding the above, the BGA will in addition consider any contemporary practitioner who has instigated a major advance in the geotechnical field, thus opening the award up to the innovative, regardless of age or incremental contribution count.

Professor Winter has made major contributions to the practical aspects of geotechnical engineering at both national and international levels.

Professor Winter has contributed significantly through research and specialist consultancy in geotechnical engineering, involving projects across the full range of transport sector disciplines. He has done so through his former role as Head of Ground Engineering at TRL and more recently as Director of Winter Associates.

He has published his work in around 300 journal/conference papers and reports and also applied his knowledge to failure investigations and as an expert witness. His work has been widely implemented in specifications and standards. Particular contributions have been to the procedures and methodologies for landslide hazard and risk assessment and risk reduction, earthworking (particularly glacial till and high stone content materials), and the engineering use of secondary/waste materials (including spent oil shale and tyre bales). He participated in Transport Scotland's Scottish Road Network Landslides Study following the debris flow events of August 2004 and TRL’s involvement in SafeLand ('Living with landslide risk in Europe: assessment, effects of global change, and risk management strategies'). His contributions have focused on the climate change impacts and the economic impacts of geohazards and delivering adaptation and enhancing resilience.

Professor Winter is a worthy winner of the John Mitchell Award.