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• Western University's Hesham El Naggar named joint winner of ISET Shamsher Prakash Award for Life-Time Contributions in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering

Western University's Hesham El Naggar named joint winner of ISET Shamsher Prakash Award for Life-Time Contributions in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering

The Indian Society of Earthquake Technology (ISET) has announced that its Executive Committee has approved Hesham El Naggar, distinguished university professor at Western University, as joint winner of the 2026 ISET Shamsher Prakash Award for Life-Time Contributions in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering (GEE). He shares the honour with Kyriazis Pitilakis, professor of geotechnical engineering in the department of civil engineering at Aristotle University, Greece.

The award recognizes sustained, career-spanning contributions that have shaped the global practice of geotechnical earthquake engineering, and El Naggar's record places him firmly among the field's most influential figures.

Asked how it feels to receive the award, El Naggar said he is "thrilled and humbled to join the elite researchers who received this award previously, and to be recognized with an award that celebrates global influence."

Over a career spanning four decades at Western University, El Naggar has built a body of work that bridges fundamental research and everyday engineering practice. He developed DYNA6, a computer program used worldwide for the response analysis and design of foundations under dynamic loading, now licensed to major national and international engineering firms and approved by nuclear regulators in both the United States and Canada for use in nuclear power plant design. His soil-structure interaction model for pile-supported structures has been built into widely used design software, including GSNAP, SeismoStruct and FLPier (D), providing engineers around the world with reliable tools for the seismic design of piles and bridges.

His influence extends directly into the codes and manuals that govern engineering practice. El Naggar authored the Machine Foundations chapter of the Canadian Foundation Engineering Manual, a standard reference for engineers designing foundations for heavy equipment and his design guidelines for large-span culverts are now part of the Canadian Highway Bridge Code (2025). He has also advanced sustainable construction through the development and testing of prefabricated reinforced concrete components, modular steel structures and innovative deep foundation systems, including helical piles, grouted helical piles and hollow core micropiles, aimed at reducing construction cost, time and carbon footprint.

El Naggar's scholarly output underscores the breadth of his impact: more than 750 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, including some 550 in leading journals such as Géotechnique, the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Computers and Geotechnics, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering and Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. His work has drawn more than 20,100 citations on Google Scholar, with an h-index of 72. He has also co-authored several major reference books, including Concrete Foundations for Turbine Generators (ASCE), Sustainability Issues for Deep Foundations (Springer) and the Bridge Foundations entry in the Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering (Springer).

A Distinguished University Professor at Western since 2020, El Naggar currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering and of Urban Resilience and Earthquake Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Engineering Institute of Canada and his numerous honours include the Ontario Professional Engineers Engineering Medal for Research and Development, the Canadian Geotechnical Society's A.G. Stermac Award and G.G. Meyerhof Award and the Zhongguancun Award for International Cooperation from Beijing Science and Technology.

Asked which of his contributions he is proudest of, El Naggar pointed to DYNA6: "It has contributed to reliable designs of major power plants, petrochemical plants, cement plants, and manufacturing plants across the globe. It carried Western's name to all corners of the world."

His advice to engineers and researchers just starting out in the field is simple: "Engineers are the stewards of society. Whatever you do, do it with care, passion, and heart, and only within your competence."

The ISET Shamsher Prakash Award is presented for life-time achievement in geotechnical earthquake engineering, honouring individuals whose research and practice have had a lasting, global impact on the safety and resilience of infrastructure in earthquake-prone regions.