KCB’s Nahyan Rana and Andy Small Receive Prestigious Publication Awards

September 23, 2024

We are proud to announce that Geoscientist Nahyan Rana, Senior Geotechnical Engineer Andy Small, and the co-author team from the CanBreach Project have been honoured with the prestigious Edward Burwell Jr. Award from the Geological Society of America for their paper on “Global magnitude-frequency statistics of the failures and impacts of large water-retention dams and mine tailings impoundments”. Nahyan was principal author of the paper with review provided by Andy Small. This award, regarded as one of the foremost global recognitions in environmental and engineering geology, is given for publications that significantly advance the field's knowledge, principles, or practices. Remarkably, this marks only the fifth time since the award's inception in 1969 that a Canadian team has received this international achievement.

In addition, Nahyan’s paper “Catastrophic mass flows resulting in tailings impoundment failures”, supported by Andy Small, has been named the 2024 Best Paper by Engineering Geology, a leading journal connecting earth sciences and engineering.

About CanBreach:

CanBreach is an NSERC-funded university-industry research initiative focused on equipping engineers with advanced tools, such as computer simulations to better manage risk associated with tailings storage facilities. KCB has been an industrial partner to the CanBreach project since it commenced in 2021.

To learn more about CanBreach click here.

The winning papers can be found here:

  • Edward Burwell Jr. Award
  • 2024 Best Paper: Engineering Geology