Awards

Chin-Fu Tsang is a pioneer in the field of “coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes” in geological media and was among the first to recognize their importance in safety assessment of nuclear waste geological repositories and other geoscientific activities. He initiated and organized a series of workshops on the topic held at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in the early 1980s. The findings from these workshops were summarized in a book “Coupled Processes Associated with Nuclear Waste Repositories” published in 1987.

For 15 years, he served as the chairman of the international DECOVALEX project from its inception in 1992 until 2007, which had the objective to lead research into coupled processes, to promote international cooperation and to encourage young geoscientists to enter this exciting multi-disciplinary field. Since Chin-Fu’s pioneering work, coupled THMC processes are today widely considered as critically important in a range of geoengineering activities, although they are known to be extremely complex and challenging to model, especially for fractured geological media.

In order to encourage further research and advancement of knowledge in THMC processes in fractured geological media, CouFrac has established the Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award since 2018 to recognize outstanding contributions from geoscientists in their early careers in THMC coupling in fractured rock that are of benefit internationally. There will be one winner of ‘Chin-Fu Tsang Coupled Processes Award’ for each CouFrac conference. The award will be conferred during the conference.

A CouFrac2024 Awards Committee will be formed and awards will be given in three categories: Best Oral Presentation, Best student Oral Presentation and Best Poster Presentation. Awards will be given during the closing ceremony of CouFrac2024.