Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof Charles W W Ng and his former PhD student Dr S Y Peng, together with two collaborators from Tianjin University, were named the 2013 recipients of the Prix R. M. Quigley Award by the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Their paper, entitled “Excavation Effects on Pile Behavior and Capacity”, is ranked no. 1 out of 102 papers published in Canadian Geotechnical Journal in 2012. This is the only research team from Hong Kong and the Mainland which received such an honor since the establishment of the journal 50 years ago. This paper advances scientific and fundamental understanding of pile performance subjected to basement excavation and it will impact foundation designs in future.

The annual award is presented to authors of the best research paper published in the journal in the preceding year. The journal is one of the few leading geotechnical publications in the world with an international authorship and circulation. The journal is supported by NRC, Canada's premier science and technology research organization and the leader of world-class scientific research projects in the country.