At the Council meeting in Madrid the Council decided to try out in Auckland for the first time a new procedure leading to the award of the Richard Wolters Prize in the following way:
 

1. selection by each National Group of IAEG of their best young engineering geologist in a procedure which
may vary per national group, but where the age criterion of 40 years and the selection is based mainly on
the presentation of one scientific publication (MSc or PhD thesis, or paper on a case history submitted to a
conference or published in a (refereed) journal).

2. nomination by the National groups of their candidate for the Richard Wolters Prize in an official letter with
documentation on the paper to be presented to the IAEG Secretary General six months before the Congress is held. If the number of nominations exceeds 16, then the Executive Committee will make within 1 month the selection of the 16 best candidates.

3. the national groups are informed five months before the Congress is held if their nominee is invited for
presentation of her/his paper in Auckland.

4. oral presentation by up to 16 young national group representatives of their paper in a “Young Engineering Geologists Pre-Congress meeting” to be held 1 day before the International Congress of the IAEG at the Congress venue.

5. selection of the nrs 1 to 3 best presentations by a jury appointed by the IAEG Executive Committee. Only the nr.1 winner will be informed immediately.

6. oral presentation of the nr.1 winning presentation during the official opening session of the Congress.

7. award of the Richard Wolters Prize and the nr 2 and nr 3 prizes to the winning young engineering geologists during the official opening session of the Congress.

 

It is expected that the IAEG national groups support the travel costs, accommodation and (student rate) fee for Congress participation of their candidates financially. National groups from low income countries and national groups with very small numbers of members can apply for (partial) financial support by the IAEG solidarity fund in a letter to the IAEG President.

The Richard Wolters’ Prize was formally established at the 1986 IAEG Council Meeting in Buenos Aires to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Richard Wolters. At the time of his sudden death on 7 March 1981, Dr. Wolters was Head of the Department of Engineering Geology at the Regional Geological Bureau of North Rhine - Westphalia in the Federal Republic of Germany. He had been Secretary General of IAEG since 1972 and was widely respected by his professional colleagues for his personal integrity, his scientific achievements and his dedication to the advancement of engineering geology. Amongst his many achievements were the upgrading of the IAEG Bulletin into a prestigious international journal and the initiation of the Hans Cloos Medal to recognise work done by outstanding scientists in the promotion of engineering geology. Dr. Wolters was posthumously awarded the Hans Cloos Medal for his signifiant achievements in the advancement of engineering geology.

The Richard Wolters’ Prize specifically recognises meritorious scientific achievement by a younger member of the engineering geology profession and is awarded to honour Dr. Wolters’ many contributions to international understanding and co-operation.

Richard Wolters’ Prize recipients:

1988	Kiril Anguelov	(Bulgaria)
1992	Lorenz Dobereiner	(Brazil)
	Honorary mention : Sarra Pistone	(Argentina)
1996	Cees J. van Westen	(The Netherlands)
	Honorary mention : Huang Runqiu	(P.R. of China)
1998	Qin Siqing	(P.R. of China)
2000	Jian Zhao	(Singapore)
2002	Atiye Tugrul	(Turkey)
2004	Dr. Hyeong-Dong Park	(Korea)
2006	Dr. Yanjun Shang	(P.R. of China)
2008	Dr. Marcus Scholz	(Germany)